Fractured Code
by Tawnis
Summary: The AmuSphere is nothing like the Nerve Gear. With safeguards in place to protect the users bodies, everyone thinks that there's no danger. However, after a pair of players playing a new Horror VRMMO based on the works of HP Lovecraft go berserk and kill their guild-mates IRL, it soon becomes clear that it's now the players minds that are on the line.
1. Fractured Code: Chapter 1

Chapter I – New Arrival:

Kirito dismounted his motorcycle in front of the Dicey Cafe and slung his helmet under his arm. Even a good distance from the door he could hear the sounds of a party in full swing coming from inside. It had never been his kind of scene, but he had promised to attend. He unzipped his leather jacket, took a deep breath and made his way inside.

Agil's little cafe was packed far more than usual for the evening; so much so that Kirito had to squeeze past a couple of Fuurinkazan members just to reach the table that Asuna and Sinon were saving for him.

"Hey Kirito, what took you so long?" Asuna asked, with a welcoming smile.

"Well I wasn't exactly expecting to wade through a mosh pit. I had no idea Agil was inviting so many people." Kirito took off his leather jacket and stored his helmet under the table before sitting down. He couldn't help keeping a smile from his face as he did so, Asuna was wearing a light pink t-shirt that he was quite fond of.

"He said everyone he had ever been in a party with and their guests." Asuna reminded him. "Some couldn't make it, but everyone tried, he's the kind of guy you just want to turn up for."

"True, he certainly rolled a lot higher on his Charisma than most."

"It's a learned skill, you should try it sometime." Asuna jibed with a chuckle.

Kirito rolled his eyes and squeezed her hand affectionately. "Have you two been waiting long?" he asked.

"Not too long," she replied. "The place filled up quickly. Did you want something to drink?"

"I was thinking about it, not too sure yet. Sinon, you want anything?"

When no reply came he finally looked over to the young woman who was sharing the table with them. She was wearing a simple buttoned white shirt and was busy staring blankly into the crowd.

"Uhh, you okay over there Sinon?" Kazuto asked, finally noticing that she wasn't participating in the conversation.

"Oh," she said snapping out of her reverie. "Sorry... I was just thinking of how few people I actually know here. I mean... I appreciate you both bringing me as your guest and all, but this seems kinda like an SAO survivor thing, doesn't it?"

"It's a celebration," Asuna reminded her. "Not just of escaping SAO but of the lives we lead and the futures we've forged beyond. You're our friend Shino, you're part of that future now."

Sinon's slightly glum look slowly changed to a soft smile. "Thanks," she said.

"So do either of you know when..." Kirito was cut off by the room falling silent and Agil pushed his way into the main bar area from one of the doors in the back.

For a moment Kazuto caught a brief glimpse of a woman in the back who must have been Agil's wife. He had never met her himself, and Agil had always said that she wasn't much if a people person offline.

Agil wore the same white dress shirt he'd seem him in many a night at the cafe, however he did have something he had certainly never seen him with before. In one burly arm, Agil held the reason he had called them all together. A baby boy that looked to be no more than two months old and had a rather confused look on his face.

"I would like to officially introduce you all to Terrance William Mills." he announced, then added with a smile. "Your future raid leader."

A chorus of laughs and chuckles echoed through the bar as everyone careened their necks to get a look at Agil's son. Before Kirito had even realized she'd moved, Asuna was standing on her seat looking over everyone's heads to see the baby.

"Oh he's so cute!" she squeaked.

Agil cleared his throat to quite the remaining chuckles. "Look, I wanted to bring you all under one roof to tell you how much you've all meant to me. We may not have always gotten along, or seen eye to eye, but at one point we were all party members, our lives all depended upon one another. I wouldn't be here, and neither would Terrance, if it hadn't been for each and every one of you. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you all."

The room was instantly filled with embarrassed smiles and murmured thanks. In SAO they may have all been confident warriors, but that only stuck with a handful of them in the real world. However once Agil continued with "First round's on the house." the erupting cheers were enough to get Terrance to start crying.

Agil quickly moved into the back room to calm his son down while a couple members of his former guild, The Bro Squad, manned the bar.

"Let's go." Asuna exclaimed, grabbing Kirito by the arm. "And don't forget the gifts, I stashed them under the table." she reminded.

Kazuto quickly grabbed the gifts she had sequestered away before being dragged through the crowd by his girlfriend with Sinon following close behind. They bumped into a couple people, but still managed to make it through the crowd relatively easily. Without waiting for an invitation, Asuna dragged them into the back room.

"Oh, hey guys." Agil greeted them, coming back around a corner. "Kathy just took Terrance upstairs, there was a bit too much excitement for the little guy; it's almost his bed time anyway."

"Aww, I was hoping to give him our gifts to him in person." Asuna pouted.

"Gifts? You guys didn't have to-"

"But we wanted to." Asuna insisted, perking right back up. "Go on" she said, pushing Kirito to the front.

"Here you go... congratulations." Kirito said awkwardly while holding out a long wrapped parcel.

Agil took a few moments to tear off the wrapping paper before chucking. "Where on earth did you find this?" he asked. In his hands he held a long axe made of some kind of sturdy foam, durable enough to withstand a child's punishment but light enough for them to play with. It also looked remarkably like the axe Agil had used on the first couple floors of SAO.

"You do enough searching online and you can find pretty much anything." Kirito replied.

"Thanks man." Agil said and held out his fist.

Kazuto gave it a quick bump and stepped aside for Asuna. Her smile lit up the room as she presented her present to Agil.

Agil gently removed the stylish bow in the middle and carefully took apart the immaculately folded wrapping paper to reveal what seemed at first to be an average forest green baby's onesy. Once Agil unfolded it however he saw emblazoned upon the front the words _Bro Squad_ the name of Agil old SAO guild.

"I know the guild was just for you and your friends, but I figured you'd make an exception for your son." she said.

"Of course." Agil said with a warm smile before giving Asuna a big bear hug. "Thanks."

Sinon stood at the back nervously shifting a little back and forth. "Uhh, I didn't know anything about you in SAO so I couldn't really be part of the theme, but I did get you this... I hope he likes it." She held out a small wrapped package with both hands.

"Thanks Asada." Agil said and opened the small package.

Inside was what looked like an old NES controller from way back in the day, however when he touched it, Agil noticed it was made of rubber, or something similar. The underside was textured bumpy and the controller buttons and pads jutted out a bit, but were non-functional.

"The person who sold it to me said it was a great teething toy for when he gets to that age."

"These are all great," Agril said with a jovial smile. "Thank you all. I'm going to take these upstairs, you three go enjoy the party."

"We'll do that." Kirito replied. "And Agil," he said as the big man turned to leave. "Contratz man."

* * *

The party went on for several hours. Silica and the youngest members were the first to head out, followed by most of the people who had work or go to school the next day. Eventually only a fraction of the riotous SAO survivors remained.

Liz and Sinon sat at the bar talking shop with Agil about how the crafting systems varied between SAO, ALO, and GGO. Klein and the other Fuurinkazan members had gotten more than a little tipsy and were trying in vain to impress the few remaining women at the party. All the while Kirito and Asuna quietly sat beside each other at their little table, both nursing a half finished drink and simply enjoying each others company.

Just as Kirito brought his glass to his mouth and took a sip, Asuna very casually asked a simple question.

"So... do you ever think of having kids?"

It took all Kazuto's self control not to spray his drink across the table, but he still couldn't prevent a rather excessive coughing fit that ended with him face down on the table gasping for air.

When he finally recovered, he looked up at his girlfriend who was trying with all her might not to explode with laughter. "You waited until I took a drink on purpose, didn't you?" he asked.

Asuna slowly calmed down until all that remained was a sly smirk. "Maybe," she admitted, "but the question still stands."

"Honestly, since we have Yui, I haven't really thought about it much."

"I love Yui too, but she was already so developed when we took her in. Eventually I'd like to try it from scratch you know... what do you think?"

Asuna nervously rubbed her hands together as she waited for Kirito's reply. She had clearly been thinking about this for some time. Since they found out about Agil's son at least, perhaps even before then? It's not like he was against having a family, but he just never thought it would become a topic of conversation so soon.

"One day." He eventually said. "There's so much going on here and now, I don't think we're ready for something like that yet... I don't think we will be for a while."

Asuna bumped him affectionately with her shoulder. "That's what I meant silly, I wasn't saying I wanted one now." she couldn't help but let out a brief chuckle. "You looked like you were going to have a heart attack."

"Well I-"

Kirito was cut off mid sentence when the front doors to the cafe swung wide and in walked a clean cut man in a sharp black suit. He looked to be middle aged, had short black hair, was average build with average height; his most discerning feature was perhaps that there was in fact nothing about him that really stood out at all. His brown eyes scanned the now quiet room until they locked onto Kirito.

"Oh no, not again." Asuna said and shot up from her chair to face down the suit. "Look here!" she shouted pointing an accusatory finger at him, "I don't know who the hell you are with this time and I don't care, we've had enough of all this crap! Kirito's still recovering from the last debacle that Kikuoka put him through. If you're after him, you're bringing all of us along this time!"

"Asuna Yuuki I presume?" the man asked.

"Yeah."

"My name is Dai Nishiyama, special agent with the Japanese department of Cyber-defence, and I have no direct association with Seijirou Kikuoka." He said matter of factly, briefly flashing a badge. "I am glad you are so interested in assisting however, because I came to see you as well."

Asuna was taken aback for a moment, usually these suits showed up to whisk Kirito away to who knew where to do God knows what while the rest of them were all kept in the dark.

"And not just the two of you," he continued. "Ryoutarou Tsuboi..."

Klein stepped out from his guild mates still a little on the drunk side. "Wait, you want me too?" he asked pointing to himself.

"Andrew Mills..." the man continued.

Agil stepped out from behind the bar. "Okay, what's this all about?" he asked.

"Rika Shinozaki..."

Liz nearly fell off her chair in surprise. "Wait what?!" she exclaimed "Why me?"

"And Shnio Asada."

"Me? But I'm not even an SAO survivor."

Kirito stepped up beside Asuna in the midst of everyone's questions to get a good look at this man.

"And of course, Kazuto Kirigaya, the famous Kirito who cleared SAO." he finished.

"Not alone," He replied. "Though judging by the people you've singled out, you already knew that."

"Very much so," he replied. "I've followed all of you closely since the liberation of Aincrad, all the way through the kidnapping scandal that followed, the subsequent Death Gun incident and beyond."

Agent Nishiyama stood nearly a head taller than Kirito, but the young man did a good job of staring him down regardless. "I think it's time you answered their questions," he said. "What's this all about?"

"I'm afraid I can't answer that here" he stated. "However I can say that is a matter to which you are all intimately familiar, and that I would like to put you all on retainer for the foreseeable future." He pushed the door open to reveal a limousine waiting outside. "If you'd all come with me, we can discus the terms of the contract at my office."

"Give us a minute to talk this over." Kirito said, before everyone grouped up for a makeshift huddle as far away from Agent Nishiyama as they could without being too obvious about it.

"This guy gives me the creeps." Liz insisted. "How do we know he's not trying to do something crazy like kidnap us or something?"

"If he were going to do that, why would he come to us in front of so many witnesses?" Asuna asked.

"To make is seem less suspicious." Liz insisted.

"He didn't need to." Kirito said causing everyone to look to him. "He knew our names and faces, since he works for the government, chances are he also knows stuff like where we live and who our families are. If he'd wanted to dome something shady, he could have done it in a much easier way. He's trying to make us think he's not a threat, weather that's true or not."

"We can at least hear the guy out." Klein stated. "We can always just say no and split later."

"If it's that easy," Agil noted. "He's being purposefully vague, he's obviously hiding something."

"What do you think Sinon?" Kirito asked. "You haven't said your piece yet."

Sinon was silent for a few moments before she finally spoke. "On the battlefield, a lack of information can be deadly. We don't know anything about this guy or who he works for, but he knows a lot about us. If he's someone we can trust or not isn't the issue, it's that he's someone we need to know more about."

"Well put." Asuna said. "All in favour?"

A quiet chorus of assents responded and the decision was made.

Kirito turned around to face the mysterious agent who had come to see them. Flanked by the friends whom he had faced death with time and time again he uttered the simple words. "Okay, we're in."

* * *

_**Thank you all for taking the time to read my new story, I hope you're enjoying it so far. I currently plan to release a new chapter at the start of each month. If I get far enough ahead though, I'll post an extra one here or there.**_

_**If you have any comments or constructive criticisms, please let me know, I'd be happy to hear them. :) **_

_**Until next time.**_

_**-Tawnis**_


	2. Fractured Code: Chapter 2

Chapter II – A Fate Worse Than Death:

The limousine they found themselves in was very nice, but ride itself was uncomfortably quiet. Agent Nishiyama drove the vehicle himself and was separated from Kirito and his friends, who were given free reign of the back. They were all nervous and curious to varying degrees, but none dared voice their concerns until they had sussed out more information from their mysterious driver.

Agil had closed down the bar before they left, sending everyone home and filling his wife in on Agent Nishiyama's request. Liz and Asuna were already planning a girl's night at Sinon's place who lived alone so they were free; Klein also lived alone and Kirito's family was out of town. Quietly Kirito wondered if this was all a coincidence or not. Him coming across them all on a night when no one had any other prior engagements other than the party.

After almost twenty minutes of nearly unbearable silence, they pulled the parking lot of a large building. There was no sign as they came in to say what the building was and there was little in the way of identifying features as they got out of the vehicle and looked around.

The sun had already set and only the dim streetlights cast a glow over their destination. The building itself was quite large and looked to be a few decades old. It was painted in drab unassuming colours and while the area around the building was far from dilapidated, it also didn't look terribly well kept.

"If you will all follow me please, I will introduce you to the rest of my team and answer all of your questions." Agent Nishiyama said as he approached a door with a simple key-card scanner.

With a quick swipe and a beep, the door opened and they were welcomed inside.

Once inside, they were lead down a short hallway to a large boardroom. The walls were painted a plain slate grey that their eyes tended to slide right off, drawing attention to the few things in the room. A massive window that they were unable to see through covered a large portion of the far wall. In the room itself, a large rectangular mahogany table that seated twelve took up the bulk of the space. At the far end of it sat a middle aged woman dressed in a similar fashion to Agent Nishiyama with a steaming pot of tea and several cups.

She reminded Kirito of Agent Nishiyama in her unremarkableness. Like him, she was average height and build without any features to immediately distinguish herself. Her dark brown hair was tied tightly at the back with something that Kirito couldn't see from where he stood.

"Please have a seat," Agent Nishiyama said, "feel free to help yourself to some tea."

Asuna graciously accepted a cup from the other agent while everyone else took a seat at the table.

"I'd like to introduce you all to Agent Chiho Shirai. As of right now, aside from a few support staff that have already gone home for the night, she is the rest of my team."

"Wait what?" Kirito exclaimed. "You made it sound like you were part of some big government agency."

"Well... we were." Agent Nishiyama said, taking a seat himself. "But with no disrespect meant, you've basically put us out of a job."

"What? How so?"

"You see, our agency was founded in the wake of the SAO incident. We worked in tandem with a few other agencies, but our primary goal was to contact the players trapped in SAO and work to secure their freedom."

"It was such a huge incident at the time that the government basically threw money at us hoping that we could solve it. At first it seemed like we were making headway, we developed a dozen full dive nerve gear emulation pods that would allow us to control everything that happened to the body while in full dive. This would keep myself and others safe when we would eventually head into SAO itself to assist you."

Agent Nishiyama leaned over and flicked a switch that illuminated the room through the window. The massive space on the other side held six of the pods he had described as well as all kinds of monitoring equipment. There was a door on the far end that Kirito assumed led to a room that housed the other six.

"While we managed to get the hardware crated in about six months time, the software proved far more... troublesome." He reached over and grabbed a cup of tea for himself as he spoke. "We still don't really know how Akihiko Kayaba coded SAO's authentication system, but even with over two years of the best tech geniuses and computer hackers money could buy and we still couldn't break into the game itself."

At the mention of that kind of firewall, Kirito could help but wonder just what kind of power the cardinal system had actually had over them in SAO. It seemed like a lot more that even he had been aware of.

"Then the day came when you all freed yourselves. The government lost a lot of faith in us, but we were still useful as not all of the players had escaped SAO." Agent Nishiyama took another sip of his tea as he looked to be remembering something specific.

"We suspected that they were being held in some other virtual space as Aincrad had been completely destroyed. We even had our suspicions that someone with former ties to Kayaba had done this on purpose. We were keeping tabs on Nobuyuki Sugou as well as a few others, but couldn't come up with anything concrete. Then, once again, you managed to free yourselves without our intervention. Or more aptly, you freed them Kirigaya."

Kirito couldn't help but fidget a little nervously at the directness of it all. He had a gut feeling where the rest of this conversation was heading and didn't care for his unintentional involvement in it. At the end of the day, he did what he had to do, but seeing how it had negatively affected others who had been trying their hardest for years to help them ate at him a little.

"We lost face and were hit with steep budget cuts. Our team was halved and we set about working on preventative measures to keep situations like that from ever happening again."

"Then the Death Gun incident happened. It seems that Kikuoka had little faith in us a well as he didn't even ask us to take part in the investigation and went straight to you."

Agent Nishiyama looked directly into Kirito's eyes, as if he seemed to be reading the young man's mind. "I want you to know that we don't blame you for what happened to us Kirigaya, any of us would have done the same in your place."

Despite the directness of it, Kirito relaxed a little at the comment as Agent Nishiyama continued his story.

"We were all hands on deck, spent nearly all of our waking ours in game trying to track down Death Gun. If we could interact with him and get any kind of data, it could have lead to his real self. However after weeks of searching, we came up empty. Then the third BOB happened, and you once again solved our problem for us."

"That turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. Nearly everyone was let go, the department is now run with only a skeleton crew just so that the government can officially say it has a gaming cyber-security division rather than believing that it actually needed one. It's not like they could actually tell anyone that they were leaving the fate of it's people up to a bunch of civilian gamers they had no control over."

"Now, another threat has arisen, and we are no longer capable of handling it on our own." Agent Nishiyama's gaze drifted between Kirito and his friends. "You've all been a part of facing this kind of thing before and now we need you to do so again. I've liquidated everything we can spare to come up with a small retainer for each of you. Please... we need your help." he said wrapping up his speech with a sincere bow to which Agent Shirai silently mimicked.

Kirito looked to his friends all of whom were still taking in the information of how their lives had been affecting all these people whom they had never even met before.

"We might be able to help," he finally said. "First though, we need to know what we're up against."

"Right, of course." Agent Nishiyama replied. "Have any of you heard of the new VRMMO that hit the Japanese market last month, Eldritch Tales Online?"

Everyone shook their heads, except for Sinon who nodded. "I haven't played it myself, but I've heard of it. A few people I know from GGO swapped over to give it a try since it has some gun-play in it; however they had a lot of trouble using firearms without a bullet circle and quickly gave it up. From what I recall, it was developed in the west and based of the works of some famous horror novelist."

"Yes," Agent Nishiyama replied, "H.P. Lovecraft."

"Wasn't he the Cthulhu guy?" Klein asked.

"Yeah that's right." Asuna replied. "I'm pretty sure that I read some of his work a while back."

"Wow," Kirito said "since when are you into horror fiction?"

"I'm really not, it was for a school assignment. We were studying how famous authors from around the world shaped their cultures perceptions around genre. Honestly his work wasn't for me, but it was interesting from a technical level."

"How so?"

"You see, he never really described the creatures and horrors in his stories; in fact there was little to no action in them at all. Instead he helps the reader to imagine a situation and allows them to scare themselves through their own conclusions... at least in the stories that I read."

"So the game is made to really scare players... in the Amushpere rig, that shouldn't really be possible should it?" Kirito finally stated. "It has a panic mode built into the processing; if a person's heart rate rises to abnormal levels, it will initiate an auto disconnect. It should be impossible to play a horror game on a rig like that."

"You're right on the money Kirigaya." Nishiyama stated. "That's why ETO was never originally released in Japan. It requires players to sign a waiver allowing them to disable certain safety features in the Amusphere in order to play the game. Since no other countries have had an incidents like SAO, they are a lot more lax with their regulations and the game was approved for mass distribution, but not here."

"But it is now?"

"After a year of high sales and no issues overseas, the regulations were eventually scaled back, and the game was released. However, something's different about our version; I just don't exactly know what yet."

"That's... not very helpful. Do you have any more specifics?" Kirito asked.

Agent Nishiyama looked down at the table for a moment without saying anything. Kirito couldn't be sure, but he thought the man was shaking ever so slightly.

"It started a few weeks ago with the Anathme Blades incident." he finally began.

Everyone perked up at the mention of that, it had been all over the news lately. Two gamers that led a small guild called the Anathme Blades killed their guild mates IRL, then committed suicide. The game they played in however had never been disclosed, though it now seemed obvious that it was ETO.

"The media had a field day and the usual proponents of "ban violent video games" came our of the woodwork again. However it's being downplayed as an isolated incident as most of those people lost credibility long ago." Agent Nishiyama sighed and finally looked back up at Kirito and his friends. "It is not however, an isolated incident; but we've been given a gag order to stay silent until we can find the cause." The man was shaking now, but from fury, sadness, or some combination, Kirito couldn't say.

Agent Shirai, who had so far been silent on the sidelines stepped up and put her hand gently on Nishiyama's shoulder. "It's okay Dai, I can tell them the rest." Her voice was soft, but still somehow strangely commanding. When she turned to face them, everyone paid immediate attention.

"With all the budget cuts around here, we've all been forced to tighten our purse-strings. Dai... I mean Agent Nishiyama, moved in with an old collage friend of his. He was a big gamer as well and had gone full force into ETO."

"It's okay Chiho." Agent Nishiyama said, cutting her off. "I appreciate the thought, but this is my story to tell."

With a slight nod, she steeped back once again.

"Things were normal at first, he played a lot, but he still was always up for work on time and we even hung out IRL on occasion. However, a couple weeks ago, things started to change." Agent Nishiyama took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose while looking down at the table.

"He started getting obsessed with the game; it was gradual at first, just little things like blowing me off or skipping the odd meal... but eventually he eventually stopped going to work, barely ate, never showered. Within the span of two weeks, he was a totally different person."

"Then, a few days ago... he just snapped. He lunged at me with a knife from the kitchen, babbling incoherently. We grappled for the weapon and he actually bit me, like a rabid fucking dog, he took a chunk right out of my arm." Agent Nishiyama was silent for a moment, and Kirito noticed his left hand resting gently on his right forearm.

"I was able to throw him off on reflex, but he came down hard on the knife..." Agent Nishiyama's eyes welled up, but he managed to hold back the tears. "He was dead before the paramedics arrived."

"My God..." Asuna whispered.

"He was a top tier player in ETO, just like the Anathme Blades, and the same thing happened to both of them; there's no way that's a coincidence. Something's wrong inside that world, but the multi-billion dollar company that owns the game is keeping it under wraps, at least for the time being. We're too small to investigate something like this on our own now... we need your help."

Agent Nishiyama finally looked back up at Kazuto and his friends. "I won't lie to you and tell you that you will be safe in taking this job. We can keep your physical bodies protected here of course, but after learning what we have, there's no guarantee that your minds will return. That being said... I'm going after whatever is responsible for this, and I'd feel a lot better about my chances with all of you in my party... I can give you all time to think it over if you need to."

"I'm in." Kirito said without hesitation.

"Kirito wait," Asuna urged him. "We should at least discus this first."

"I know, but when I released the World Seed I became responsible, at least in part, for everything done with it. I can't in good conscience let this go on, regardless of the risks."

"I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just saying lets have a conversation about it first, we're a team aren't we?" Asuna asked.

"It's my fault this is all out there, you don't all need to -"

Asuna and Agent Nishiyama both opened their mouths to speak but Klein beat them to it slamming his hands down on the table.

"K... Klein?" Kirito stammered in surprise.

"I have had it with your whole lonely hero crap!" He shouted.

"Look I-"

"I'm not done!" Klein interrupted again pointing accusingly at his best friend. "Every time you've got to be the one to go and save the day and to hell with the rest of us. I know you're thinking that this is your responsibility, that you don't want us to be in danger, well tough."

"You're not here to see how much all your friends worry about you, you don't see how much we wish we'd all be fighting alongside you. You don't get to decide for us, and you don't get to run off on your own again. We're a team, he brought us all here together, we're all doing this together. Right?" He said, looking around at everyone.

"Always." Asuna answered.

"For sure." Liz replied.

Sinon just smiled and nodded her assent.

"Mister Tsuboi is correct Kiragaya. I have assembled you all, because I need all of you. Not only are you all either S class or A class MMO players, but you're all close friends. If something in that game really can alter peoples minds, I want to catch it before it gets too serious and prevent any permanent damage. That means people who know you inside and out and can speak up if you start acting strange. I need all of you."

"All right... I'm sorry." Kirito finally said.

Liz smiled and nudged Klein with her elbow. "You know, you do have your moments... not many of them, but you do have them."

"Thanks... I think." he replied.

"I really hate to be the one to break up the cheer, but I can't come along." Agil stated.

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise.

"Don't get me wrong, part of me would love to go off on another crazy adventure with you lot, but I've got a family to think of now. If whatever this is really can alter peoples minds and make them hurt the people around them... I just can't take that chance."

"It's okay, we understand." Asuna replied and rest of the crew nodded in agreement.

"Thanks everyone." Agil said with a sad smile. "Drinks are on me when you all get back. It's the least I can do when you're all out risking your lives again."

"That's completely understandable Mr. Mills." Agent Nishiyama said. "Agent Shirai can drive you back to the cafe while I go over the details with everyone else."

Agent Shirai politely nodded to the group then escorted Agil quietly outside.

"I know it's late, so I'll try not to keep you too long." Agent Nishiyama stated. "We'll do a quick overview of the game itself and my current leads, followed by a brief dive to acclimatize yourself to the UI. Tomorrow is Saturday so we can start in earnest then."

"That sounds good to me." Kirito stated and everyone else nodded their agreement.

"First off, the game has six classes, but they don't follow the typical holy trinity of tank, healer, and DPS; though some do tilt towards specific archetypes." As Agent Nishiyama spoke he tapped a few icons on a keyboard built into the table and 3D images of the classes appeared on the table. "The classes are Brawler, Duellist, Rouge, Officer, Researcher, and Spiritualist."

Asuna knew that Kirito and Klien would both want to play the duellists and Sinon was staring at the Officer as it was the only one with a gun. Liz was skimming through some projected notes that showed the researcher as the best crafting class. She had no idea what Agent Nishiyama preferred which meat she was probably going to be relegated to healing/support duty again. Asuna sighed, but quickly internally reprimanded herself; this wasn't about having fun, it was about saving lives.

"The party system in ETO can accommodate eight players, so it's good to have at least one of each class to be prepared for anything." Agent Nishiyama mentioned.

"What are you and Agent Shirai going to be playing?" Asuna asked "We should base our decisions somewhat off that?"

"I'll play whatever role needs to be filled, I'm not picky," Agent Nishiyama replied. "However Agent Shirai will not be diving, she will be monitoring us from the outside."

Asuna did a quick head count to make sure she hadn't gone crazy. "Wait, so then even if Agil had stayed, we would still have been down one person?"

"Not exactly." Agent Nishiyama stated. "We have recruited one other player, though they insisted on being allowed to make their own introductions."

As if on queue, the side door to the meeting room swung open and a young woman walked in.

She was short with curly dirty blonde hair that was mostly covered by the hood of an old beige sweater. As she looked up at them her brown eyes gleamed and Asuna knew who she was even before she spoke. "Hey A-chan, Ki-boy; it's been a long time."

* * *

_**I hope you all enjoyed the second chapter. I had wanted to actually get them into ETO by the end of it, but there was a lot more setup to do than I originally realised, so that's going to have to wait until the next chapter.**_

_**Please let me know what you think, was this too much of an info dump too early, or is it flowing nicely so far.**_

_**Next chapter you'll get to see what this new game world is all about. See you next month.**_


	3. Fractured Code: Chapter 3

Chapter III – ETO:

"Argo!" Asuna exclaimed as everyone got a first hand glimpse of why she was nicknamed "lightning flash". She bolted across the room and scooped Argo up in a giant spinning hug. "It's been forever!"

"Hey Argo" Kirito said nonchalantly walking over to join them. "I know we never exchanged IRL info, but with all your skills, I'd been hoping you'd find some way to track us down."

"I'd been meaning too." Argo finally replied once Asuna had put her down, "but life kept getting in the way. It's good to see you all again."

Everyone else quickly followed Kirito over and gave their own greetings to the former information broker. With the exception of Sinon, they had all known her in some manner or another, but none had been as close to her as Asuna and Kirito had.

"So you're the last person they brought on board for our party?" Kirito asked.

"You got it; you know I can't say no when the price is right." She replied with a smirk.

"I thought you said you had your budget slashed?" Kirito asked, turning to Agent Nishiyama. "How'd you afford her insane rates?"

"Hey I resent that!" Argo retorted.

"We did." Agent Nishiyama sighed heavily, though Kirito couldn't tell if it was real or him being dramatic. "Miss... Argo's rather large retainer is coming out of my own pay. It's going to be a long while of instant ramen for me."

"Hey wait... you just called her Argo." Asuna stated. "You call the rest of us by our real names."

"Very true Miss Yuki. It was one of many additional conditions that she insisted upon before accepting the contract. As she was the only person I believed could fill our final slot, I didn't have much choice but to accept."

Everyone turned back to Argo ready to ask a barrage of questions but Agent Nishiyama cut them off. "If you don't mind, we can discuss this all later. I would like to get back to the business at hand."

Reluctantly, they quickly settled back into their chairs with Argo taking the seat that Agil had left vacant, and sorted out their party composition. They had just began discussing character options when Agent Shirai returned with a coffee and resumed her silent vigil at the corner of the table.

Klein opted to to play a Brawler when he found out that they were the only ones who could wield two handed swords from the get go. To nobodies surprise Kirito, Sinon, and Argo took the Duellist, Officer, and Rouge classes respectively. Liz snatched up the researcher and Agent Nishiyama filled out their one of everything roster with a Spiritualist. That left Asuna in the surprising position to be able to pick whatever she wanted. After a little thought, she decided to go with what was most comfortable to her and selected Duellist as well.

"Now that we're all set, I have one last bit of information to share before we dive." Agent Nishiyama said. "The only lead I have on what might be behind all of this."

Everyone leaned forward slightly, focused intently on what their handler had to say.

"This is a full map of the ETO world." he said, as a digital map replaced the character avatars on the table.

A large city dominated the central region of the map and a few others were scattered about with nothing but wilderness and a few sparse roads and train tracks between them. There were also about a dozen other zones that were projected in amorphous spheres adjacent to the main map.

"The central city in ETO is called Arkham, but the city itself is also the first questing area for new players."

"Wait, they have that much quest content in the city itself?" Kirito asked.

"Unlike other VRMMO's, ETO has no safe zones whatsoever. Anyone can be attacked at anyplace, at anytime."

"That's crazy!" Asuna exclaimed.

"Yeah," Liz put in. "So you're saying that I could be crafting away and someone could just come by, attack me and swipe my stuff?"

"Essentially yes." Agent Nishiyama confirmed. "Though there is a bounty system in place to punish players that engage in such actions, skilled pvpers use it as a test to take on multiple people all trying to track them down and kill them for the reward."

"Yikes." Was all Liz could manage in response.

"The other cities are all large quest hubs a well, Dunwitch, Kingsport, and Ipswitch. The spheres you see on the side are other worlds that your party can be transported to in order to combat the various horrors that lurk there. There is also a level scaling system implemented in the game that for the most part allows anyone to go almost anywhere right out of the gate."

"What's this zone?" Kirito asked, pointing to a partially shaded city.

"That would be my lead." Agent Nishiyama revealed. "Innsmouth is the only area that has yet to be explored fully as only a handful of players have made it there."

"How's that?" Klein asked "Is there some super secret way to get there?"

"No, everyone knows how to get there, but they are being stopped." The images of the maps faded away and were replaced by a blurry image of a figure in a black cloak wielding a wicked looking scythe. The player tag over the avatar simply read _Reaper_.

"This player, though some believe he is actually an overpowered NPC made to look like a player, has killed nearly every player that has tried to make it to Innsmouth. There are videos online of him that some guilds have taken where the Reaper wipes out an entire raid group without loosing more than half his HP."

Everyone was on their feet at that comment shouting various forms of "that's insane" or "no way."

"But some people have got past him?" Kirito finally realized aloud.

"Yes, though it has only been a handful of players and each by using the same strategy. The majority of their guild would sacrifice themselves, distracting the Reaper long enough for a few of their players to sneak into Innsmouth. Both of the Anathme Blades as well as my roommate had managed to make it into Innsmouth in the game."

Agent Nishiyama let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "I don't know if the Reaper is responsible or it's just a coincidence, but the only connection we have right now is Innsmouth, so our first priority is finding a way to, at the very least, get past the Reaper."

"Well, we're not going to get anywhere our here." Klein stated. "Let's get in there and see what kind of world we're up against."

"Please, this way." Agent Shirai said.

She led them out the door and around the corner into the room in their window. This one had six pods in it and according to what Agent Nishiyama had said, there was another one just like it down the hall.

Agent Shirai spent a few minutes going over some safety procedures and hooking them all up to some non-invasive monitoring equipment before the six of them climbed into their pods.

"I'll be waiting for you all in the Arkham town square." Agent Nishiyama said. "The tutorial doesn't take long, so we should all be there in about fifteen minutes."

They all settled into their respective monitoring pods and said the words. "Link start."

* * *

Kirito opened his eyes to see the character creation screen set out before him. There were three options given: customize avatar, random avatar, and personal avatar. Kirito tapped lightly on personal avatar and his body took on a form very similar to that of his in the real world. Then he selected the duellist class for a drop down that appeared next to him. A moment later, the blank space around him shifted, as he loaded into the main game.

The building he stood in looked a little worse for wear, but not unkempt. It actually reminded him a little of the Kendo dojos he'd attended when he was younger. Before him stood a slender but well built NPC with short grey hair and a handlebar moustache. Above his head floated the name _Goro, Duelist Trainer. _

"Today, your training comes to an end." He said in a gruff but official tone. "I wish to see your skills one last time, then I shall officially declare you a graduate of this academy."

A small window appeared in Kirito's field of view. _Accept Quest Tutorial?_ Followed by a yes and no option.

He knew how to fight well enough, still every game had it's own quirks and the more information that he had about this one the better. Quickly, he tapped the yes icon.

"Excellent." Goro said. "Then we shall review the three basic sword skills, you shall no doubt learn more as you develop your own style however."

_Sword Skills? _Kirito thought. _Could this game actually have sword skills as well?_ He withdrew a worn rapier that had appeared at his side and faced down the trainer.

"Please, proceed and demonstrate a basic lunge."

A small notation script appeared in Kirito's vision. It read: _Place one foot in front of the other in a sideways stance and point your sword at your target._ When Kirito obeyed, the tip of his sword glowed for a moment, then when he stepped into the attack, he shot forward like a cannon towards the trainer.

With a quick flash of his own sword, the trainer turned aside Kirito's strike and sent him stumbling across the room. Barely able to remain on his feet, Kirito turned back to face him.

He looked down to his weapon, then back up to the trainer. What he had done felt similar to a sword skill... very similar in fact; yet something felt slightly off about it, he just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

"Next is the parry, as I just demonstrated." the instructor said. "When I lunge at you, turn my attack aside."

Another tooltip appeared for Kitiro. _When an enemy attacks you, sweep your sword in front of you to turn the attack aside._

A few seconds later the trainer lunged at him and Kirito batted the attack away on reflex.

"Well done," the trainer acknowledged, quickly readying himself. "Last is the Riposte. Parry my attack again, but this time strike back with a lunge afterwards."

Kirito performed the move with ease and his first _Quest Complete_ notification of this new game popped up.

"As you learn more, never forget that these three moves are the foundation upon which your other techniques are built. I have nothing more to teach you now, but I would pass along one more bit of information." The trainer sat down on a small training bench and motioned for Kirito to join him.

With a few quick strides and an impatient thump, he sat next to the tutorial trainer.

"There is more out there that you can comprehend, and I don't mean in regards to technique. If I simply told you, you would not believe me; yet your skill is great enough that I believe I can show you." He regarded Kirito with a serious and calculated glare. "There is a small island that you can see from the town docks, go and investigate it as soon as you are able, you will see the truth of why I truly took you on as a pupil."

Another quest icon popped up. _Investigate the Unvisited Isle._ Kirito tapped confirm and a rueful smile appeared on the trainers face.

"Keep your blade close," he warned. "You can never be certain what lurks just beyond your sight."

"Thank you." Kirito said with a slight bow; though it was more out of habit than a belief that this trainer's code was advanced enough to truly appreciate the gesture.

He departed the small training gym and found himself in a dour town square. The sky was overcast and all the buildings around him had the same well maintained, yet somehow dilapidated look about them.

The most distinguishing set of buildings by far raised up in the distance beyond a sign hanging above a large gate. Kirito could barely make out the words _Miskatonic University_ on it.

In the centre of the square where he now stood was a large fountain with several benches around it. On one of them sat Asuna, Argo, Sinon, and Agent Nishiyama all wearing attire that matched this drab new world.

"What took you so long Ki-boy?" Argo asked "Asuna got here a full minute before you."

"I didn't realize it was a race." Kirito admitted.

"Well it's a good thing, or else you'd realize that I kicked your butt." Asuna stated with a sly smirk.

Kirito stopped to think for a moment. He'd gone through all the short events rather quickly, maybe someone could have picked up a few seconds here or there, but a minute? Even if he had been trying he doubted he could have cleared the training mode so fast.

Asuna's couldn't help but widen her smirk as she saw the puzzlement fill her boyfriend's face.

"Okay you got me," He finally said. "How'd you do it?"

"Hmm... not telling." she replied.

"For real?" he asked "You're just going to leave that hanging? Did you just skip the whole training because you're so comfortable with a rapier already you figured you'd be fine?"

"Warmer."

Asuna couldn't help but giggle at the frustrated look on her boyfriend's face. "Come on, it's not like I can lord gaming knowledge over you very often, let me have my moment."

Kirito took a seat beside her. "Yeah, but I always tell you after."

"Oh fine. If you riposte during the parry lesson, he skips to the end and gives you a slightly better starting weapon. Happy now?"

"Oh... that makes sense." Kirito replied. "It's like a little boost for players rolling an alt."

"Ahem." Liz cleared her throat just behind them. "I hate to interrupt your weird banter, but everyone's here now."

Sure enough, Klein and Liz had joined the group without either of them noticing. Kirito noted with a barely suppressed smirk that Klein's starting weapon was a large baseball bat of all things.

"Let's get this underway then." Agent Nishiyama said as he sent party invites to everyone. "We should pick a nearby quest to get your feet wet. What's everyone got?"

Nishiyama broke out a map of the town and everyone checked where their respective starting quests were located.

"Looks like mine's the closest." Liz noted. She pulled up her quest screen and clicked the share icon.

Kirito tapped the accept icon and read the message that followed: _Recently, some of the students in the astronomy wing of the University's science building have been acting odd. They have been running the machines all night and excluding all others from witnessing their work. Recently a student who tired to sneak in was badly beaten before being tossed out. Please investigate the situation and determine the cause of this strange behaviour. _

Below the next was listed a small cash reward and a low level piece of gear, basically what you'd expect from any beginner quest.

"Well we better get moving them." Asuna said and headed off towards their first quest.

* * *

The short walk to the University already had Kirito wondering if this drab overcast aesthetic was just because of the game's weather system, or if it was a permanent feature he would have to adapt to.

As Liz led them through the campus grounds, he also couldn't help but wonder if the dozens of large multi-story buildings around them were fully accessible. He wasn't sure exactly how big Arkham actually was yet, but after some quick math and educated guesswork, he figure that ETO could easily have a much large map than Aincrad had.

They soon arrived at a central building listed simply as "Administration" and entered through a pair of large glass double doors. An elderly receptionist with eye wear that looked more like magnifying glasses than anything else sat at a desk nearby with a quest marker over he head. Her character nameplate simply read "_University Receptionist_", but she was wearing a name tag that said "Hello, my name is Ruth."

Liz stepped up to the desk since it was her quest. "Hello uhh... Ruth?" she said.

"Yes that's me," she replied in a warm grandmotherly voice. "What can I do for you young lady?"

After the NPC spoke, her nameplate changed to "_Ruth, University Receptionist_".

"Professor Brighton asked us to look into the issues in the Astronomy department."

"Oh, nasty business that," Ruth replied. "I'm not sure what's come over those students. After what they did to poor Karl, I honestly expected the police."

Sinon quickly pushed past Kirito to stand next to Liz and flashed Ruth a gleaming police badge. "Due to the rash of disturbances in Arkham recently, we've deputized some of the local citizenry to assist us. I am currently training this bunch."

"Well I suppose that makes sense." Ruth said after a few moments, then fished a key out of one of her many drawers. "Take the stairs over there to the top floor and it's the third door on your right."

Asuna spoke up the moment she delivered they were out of ear shot. "That was pretty neat, how did you know you could do that?"

"Yeah, it's my a class' unique ability," Sinon replied. "So long as I don't go overboard, which was not explained in detail, I can use my authority to get the locals to help out."

"That sounds sweet," Klien exclaimed. "But what makes it unique though? I thought all the classes were different here."

"There are to a point," Agent Nishiyama clarified. "You see many of the abilities in ETO are cross class, you can be a researcher that's great with a sword or an officer that can do magic; your class is more of a guideline on what might suit you best. That being said there are a few abilities that can only be used by certain classes, and a good chuck of them are unlockable."

"You could have mentioned that earlier." Kirito stated.

"There are so many little nuances to this game, if I'd spent all night going over them, we never would have had a chance to dive. Tonight I hit you with he cliff notes and practical experience. We can go over the minutia later."

No one else seemed to be taking any issue with Agent Nishiyama's explanation, but Kirito was still uneasy. Perhaps with everything that had happened between Heathclief and Kikuoka, he simply didn't trust authority figures anymore. At least he hoped that was all it was.

They soon reached the top floor and Klein took the lead followed closely by Kirito and Asuna, then the rest of the team. The hallway they found themselves in was dim, with a few remaining lights flickering inconstantly. There were a few closed doors to their left, but none of the right. At the end of the hall was a small square area with a large window. In the corner, braced up against it was a figure, half slumped onto the floor.

Kirito and Klein approached cautiously, their weapons drawn, but it it only took a second for Asuna to push past them to check on the stranger. Kirito stayed on her heals, eyes never leaving the form on the ground while Klein swept across to the adjacent corridor, ready for an ambush.

"All clear." Klein called over his shoulder.

The NPC slumped on the floor was simply listed as _Injured Man_. He looked to be in his early twenties with matted brown hair and a dark blue turtleneck. A grimace of pain splayed across his face as he sat there clutching his side.

"Are you okay?" Asuna asked, kneeling down next to his slumped form.

The injured man's hazy eyes cleared slightly at the sound of he voice. "Please," he begged, "you have to stop them, they've all gone insane!"

"What happened?" Kirito asked.

"Start from the beginning." Asuna prompted.

"My name is Karl Stribe, I'm studying astronomy... or I was." As he spoke those words, just like the lady downstairs, his nameplate changed to _Karl Stribe, Studen__t_."

"I had just left during a break between semesters to visit my folks in Oregon. Our teacher, Mr. Hawke, called me up saying that they had found something amazing and that I should get back to the campus right away."

"Unfortunately... or perhaps fortunately in hindsight, I had familial commitments that i couldn't get out of, so I had to wait. When I returned last week they kicked me out of the lab for no reason. I tried to sneak back in to get my stuff tonight but... they were a little rougher this time around."

Karl looked up at Asuna and Kirito with pleading eyes, while wincing through he pain. "I don't know what they found, but something's changed them. Please you have to stop them, I know it sounds crazy, but they aren't the people I used to know and they're doing something terrible in there, I can feel it."

The party turned down the hallway looking towards a sign hanging over one of the doors that ready "_Astronomy Labs_". Calmly the rest of the party drew their weapons and prepared fro their first fight in ETO.

"Okay," Asuna said, stepping to the forefront. "Klein, Kirito, and I will go in first. Argo, Sinon, provide support where needed. Liz, keep Agent Nishiyama covered."

"Right!" they all replied in unison.

"I'll get the door." Argo said, keeling down in front to get the lock to head height. After a few moments of fiddling with a hairpin there was a soft click and she was able to softly turn the handle. Quietly leaving the door slightly ajar, she stepped back into the middle of the group.

Klein took the lead. He instinctively raised his baseball bat and sighed, longing for the feel of a trusty katana in his hands once again, before gently pushing the door open and stepping into the room. Asuna and Kirito followed close behind, but spread out as best as they could. The others quietly slid in after them.

The room was long and rectangular with computers lining the walls and charts of the night sky scattered about tables in the middle. Otherwise the room was dark and betrayed no sign of the astronomers, save for a light shining from a door to another room.

"Surround the door," Asuna ordered. "Then we'll funnel them through and hit them from all sides."

She and Kirito each took one side of the door and Klein stood ready in the middle. Sinon quickly settled into a spot with a good line of fire and reasonable cover while everyone else searched for a good location.

As she was looking for a good spot, Liz noticed a closed door that everyone else had bypassed. "Hey, do you think there might be something in here?" she asked quietly as she reached for the handle.

"Liz wait!" Kirito shouted on reflex.

Either by Kirito's shout, or Liz's touching of the handle, all Hell suddenly broke loose.

The door in from of Liz shot open hitting her in the face and laid her out across the floor of the lab. Her HP dropped a little and her status bar flashed with a dazed icon.

A pained scream echoed out of the closet and an NPC burst from it wielding a firefighter's axe. The icon above his head simply read _Maniac_. They all reacted instantly, Klein a step ahead of Kirito and Asuna, and Sinon already drawing down on the attacker.

Then the main door burst open and several _Crazed Astronomer_'s charged through wielding knives, and various other sharp objects.

Kirito caught a piece of one, causing the attacker to stumble and Sinon finished it off with a few well placed shots, but four more made it past and launched a counter-attack. They blew past Kirito and Asuna at the door and headed for the others in the room instantly turning the lab into a giant brawl.

Two of the crazed attackers rushed Sinon in unison. She backpedalled as she unloaded into the one on the left, bringing the attacker down, but her clip ran dry as she backed into a wall.

Just as the remaining NPC was about to strike, Argo burst from the shadows. She buried twin daggers into the assailant's torso and rode him to the ground on the force of the momentum. As the NPC hit the floor, it's HP hit zero and it went limp beneath Argo's weight.

Meanwhile, the other two attackers had rushed for Liz's prone form and Klien's now exposed back.

Agent Nishiyama rose to their defence, holding up some strange icon and muttering something in a language no on recognized. Instantly, one of the attackers faltered, stumbled, and crashed to the floor flailing about with violent convulsions. In a few moments, the NPC seemed to age a century, becoming a withered shell of it's former self and useless in the fight.

Klein was still locked in combat with the maniac, he had used his bat to lock the axe under the blade and was grappling with the maniac for the weapon. The last assailant brought his dagger within inches of striking before her froze. The NPC looked down to see the tip of a rapier had pierced his heart from behind and protruded out through his chest.

"Never turn your back on the enemy." Asuna said as she slid her rapier out of her foe. The NPC's health hit zero a moment later and it slumped to the floor like it's compatriots.

The Maniac finally pulled his weapon free and Klein was forced to backpedal quickly to avoid another of the NPC'S sweeping strikes. The weapon just missing both him and the nearby Asuna before burning itself deep into a mahogany desk.

With a quick strike, Klein connected the bat to the maniac's head. A sickening crunch echoed through the room and the NPC dropped lifeless to the floor.

The entire fight had barely lasted ten second at most, but it left them all shaken and stunned.

"That was... faster than usual." Asuna finally commented as she helped Liz to her feet. "Though I suppose these are low level mobs."

"Not exactly," Agent Nishiyama replied. "In ETO health is low and damage is high. If you're not careful, you can go down just as quickly as they did."

"I'm sorry," Liz said "I should have been more careful."

"We also missed the door," Klein noted. "That guy might have just jumped out at us mid fight if we hadn't done it like this."

A slight smile slowly found it's way to Liz's face. "Thanks," she said.

Kirito, who was still guarding the door in case more enemies tried to break in quickly ushered everyone over. It has swung shut in the commotion, but he could still hear a sound coming from the other side of the door. It was slight, but it sounded like something was being snapped over and over again.

As everyone gathered closer by, Kirito readied his sword and quietly pushed the door open. Before his was a small study with several overturned chairs on a drab carpet. An oak desk dominated the centre of the room and behind it lay rested hundreds of books upon several shelves.

At the desk sat a lone figure in a drab lab coat. His eyes could not be seen for they stared straight down, but his hair was horribly dishevelled and greying in several strange patches. His hands extended like claws, digging into the table with terrible strength. As he pulled them back towards himself, bits of desk, nail, and blood mingled to a chorus of light snaps.

"I tired to stop them... at first," the figure who's nameplate read _Astronomy Professor_ mumbled.

Cautiously, Kirito and the others entered the room, all trying to keep their eyes on the mans hidden face instead of what he was doing with his hands. As the snapping sound caused Kirito to think of it again, his sanity meter dipped slightly.

"It just... gets in your head." the man continued. "The terrible thirst for knowledge... and the need to do anything to keep it."

"Please stop," Asuna begged. "We're here to help you, tell us what did this and we can put an end to it."

The man trembled in his seat as a particularly large chunk of nail broke off of his index finger and spooled more blood onto the table. "It's not just what's here, it's the whispers from beyond the starts; every fibre of my being screams at me to obey."

He looked up just enough for them to see his crazed eyes and crooked, broken smile. "But the pain you see, the pain can keep them at bay for just a little while; a few moments where I can be some semblance of myself again."

"Even so... I can hear the whispers returning... they are getting so loud now. They want me to protect the knowledge they have found... they want me to stop you." The man took a deep ragged breath. "But I won't!"

With a blur of motion rivalling the speed of Asuna herself, the NPC drew a concealed pistol, stuck it to his temple, and pulled the trigger. A quick spurt of blood and bone ejected from the opposite end of his head, and the Professor slumped onto the table in a heap.

Asuna, Liz, and Klein flinched, looking away just before the shot. Kirito, Sinon, and Argo winced, but did not turn. Their sanity bars dipped a bit more.

Liz gasped urgently for air, but she couldn't seem to get enough. "Why... the hell... would someone... make this." she stammered through ragged gasps.

Asuna wrapped here in her arms gently, a single tear rolling down here own face.

"It's okay," Agent Nishiyama said. "This is just a game, keep reminding yourself that and the shock will quickly pass."

"Spoken like someone who's never had to live in one!" Asuna snapped back. "These might just be NPC's to you, but to us... some of them have been as real as flesh and blood."

Agent Nishiyama seemed taken aback for a moment by the outburst, but he quickly recovered. "I'm just saying, we don't know yet how the players minds are being affected. It's possible that becoming too invested in the NPC's and their world could make it easier for you to become a target."

"Yeah well, deal with it!"

Asuna couldn't help but think of some of the NPC's in Aincrad; ones that felt were just as real to her as Kirito was. The thought of Kizmel, or God forbid Yui, going through something like that poor old professor did sent shivers down her spine.

Klein gently rested his hand on Liz's shoulder. "Hey," he said. "We made it through Aincrad, not just for ourselves, but for everyone else trapped in there. People are dying here too, I know it's hard, but if we balk at this, who's going to help them?"

"I know... I know." Liz replied slowly, her breathing finally returning to normal. "It's just, I'm a blacksmith, I never did the front-line combat thing that you were all so famous for. I'd never seen anyone die before, even in Aincrad. I knew about it sure, had customers... even friends who never came back... but I never saw it in front of me like that."

"At least in my experience, it's best to keep moving forward. Put one foot in front of the other, and it makes things a little easier to bare." Kirito put in. "To that affect, the next door is locked."

"Key's here." Argo said lifting from around the dead professors neck and tossing it to Kirito. She took a quick moment to secure his pistol and check for anything else valuable. Argo was nothing if not pragmatic.

"Whatever caused this madness is up ahead, stay focused everyone." Kirito said as he readied the key.

"I'd say whoever caused this madness was behind a computer screen." Liz mumbled, but got ready with the rest of the party anyway.

Quietly as he could manage, Kirito pushed the door open.

What awaited them was a large room with a domed roof. In the centre sat a massive telescope with it's lens pointed firmly at the ceiling. What drew everyone's attention however, was not this room itself, but the strange creature that was perched halfway up the telescope.

Kirito couldn't put the macabre creature he saw before him into easy words, but if he'd been hard pressed to try, he would have said it looked like a giant fungus trying to burst out of a crustacean's shell. Despite that, there was a clear indication of insectoid features as well, between it's buzzing wings and strange head, if it could even be called that. At first he thought it was just a jumbled mess, but looking closer revealed hundreds of small antennae that were stretching out in every direction all formed around a convoluted ellipsoid shape. The nameplate over the creature simply read _Mi-Go_.

"Yuck" Was all Liz could say upon seeing this strange creature.

It turned it's antennaed head towards the group and emitted a sound so sharp and shrill that it nearly drove the party to their knees. As most of them covered their ears to try to block it out, their sanity meters slowly started to drop. The only sound that barely cut through the curdling screech was Sinon discharging her pistol at the monster.

The Mi-Go leaped from the telescope to escape the gunfire, and spread it's bug wings wide, circling the room. Now focused on avoiding bullets, the shrill sound it was emitting mostly died down.

"Spread out!" Kirito shouted over the noise. "Try to get an angle on it!"

Quickly, he made for the telescope in the centre of the room, hoping to use it's height to his advantage. Without taking his eyes off the circling Mi-Go, Kirito ran up the massive telescope and leaped at the creature.

The monster's multi-directional vision saw the attack coming though and quickly adjusted it's trajectory to avoid the strike. However, it noticed almost too late, that Asuna had also leaped towards it form the opposite side. It still managed to contort itself to force that attack that would have cut through one of its wings, to bounce harmlessly off its chitinous exoskeleton.

As soon as Asuna and Kirito were clear, Sinon unloaded the remainder of her clip on the Mi-Go. It evaded most of the shots, but one struck true, with a small splash of ichor. It did little to deter the creature however as it quickly turned on a dive for the remaining members of the party.

Klein rushed to block it's path and took the full force of the creature's attack head on. He blocked one of the monter's grasping claws with his bat, but the other ripped into his side making a solid chunk of his health disappear in an instant.

Argo leaped at the creature from behind, daggers ready to cripple it, but one of it's back legs lashed out and knocked her aside.

Kirito and Asuna were now almost upon the creature as well. Sensing it was being surrounded, the Mi-Go quickly took off into the air and out of reach once more.

"Damn it!" Klein cursed. "No matter what angle we come at it from, it can always see us coming."

"If only we had some way to blind it" Asuna remarked.

"Oh that's it!" Liz exclaimed. "I've got this, let it get close to me."

"You sure about this?" Klein asked.

"Positive, I'll be fine."

Liz ran out of the group cluster as soon as Sinon finished loading up her next clip. "Over here you big gross bug thing!" she shouted.

The Mi-Go quickly took notice of the lone player separated from the group and dove in for an attack.

Liz circled the room quickly with the Mi-Go in tow, looping back around to the group. Just as the creature was about to pull up, Liz pulled a massive flashlight out of her pack and shone it right into what passed for the Mi-Go's eyes.

The creature spasmed in mid air and released an ear piercing wail of pain that caused everyone's sanity bars to drop a little. The Mi-Go crashed to the ground, but it's forward momentum carried it onward like a wrecking ball. Not able to outrun it, Liz quickly dove to the side and out of the way.

The monster was still shrieking and spasming when Asuna and Kirito plunged their blades past its chitinous exoskeleton. After a few moments, the Mi-Go finally went silent and stopped moving.

Liz sat on the floor groaning with her head in her lap. She was still suffering the worst from the Mi-Go's scream from being so close when she blinded it.

"That was pretty gutsy using yourself as bait." Sinon said. "Where did you get that giant flashlight anyway."

"I figured that since this was my starting quest, I should have something that could help." Liz tried to stand up but stumbled and grabbed onto Sinon for support. "Why is everything all fuzzy?" she asked.

"What's your sanity level?" Agent Nishiyama inquired.

"Uhh, fifty-eight percent." she replied after a quick check.

"Once you get below seventy-five percent, it starts effecting how the game translates data to your brain, it's to simulate your character's fraying sanity. The blurry vision is the first symptom, but as your sanity drops lower, the game will affect you in other ways too."

"Another thing you neglected to mention." Kirito pointed out.

"Like I said, there are thousands of features in this game, it would take days to go over them all. I wanted to see how well you could all handle new situations and you've all done fairly well." Agent Nishiyama turned to regard the while group. "Clearly we still need to refine your skills in ETO, but the quests scale in difficulty to the number of players, so this was still no easy task. We should call it quits for this evening so you can all get some rest; we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Before logging off for the night, they turned in Liz's quest and she was rewarded with her first spell, Sight from Beyond. It allowed her to project an astral form to anywhere she could see and gain vision of the area.

The party grouped back up in the main square by the fountain as a place to start their journey from the next day. Then the familiar rushing sensation of logging out and they were back in the physical world.

Kirito opened his eyes and slowly slid out of his pod. Everyone else was still re-orienting themselves when agent Shirai walked in.

"How did everything go?" she asked.

"Well enough." Kirito reported. He looked over at Agent Nishiyama also getting out of his pod. "But we do still have a long way to go to adapt to a game this different."

"If you'll follow me, it is quite late and I would be happy to drive you all home."

Slowly, the group gathered up all there things and filed back into the car. They spoke little on the ride home, each contemplating that beating the world itself was going to be difficult enough, but knowing that there was a malicious force obscured behind it all struck a cord of fear in each of them.

* * *

Agent Nishiyama was still in the office pouring over some files when Agent Shirai returned.

"Dai, it's two in the morning, go home." she said while fighting back a yawn herself.

"Just making sure that everything is ready for tomorrow."

"Do you really think they can handle this?" she asked.

"Without a doubt."

"It just feels... wrong, not telling them everything I mean."

Agent Nishiyama finally looked up at his partner. "They'll find out on their own soon enough."

"Except by then it will be too late... they should have the choice to opt out now."

"I doubt they would... certainly Kirigaya wouldn't."

"Then why the half truths?" Shirai pressed.

"Precaution only... simply put, like it or not, we can't do this alone. Besides, right now it's only a theory, I could be way off base."

"I don't think you are."

Agent Nishiyama sighed. "Neither do I, but we have no solid proof that this Reaper character is at all affiliated with Laughing Coffin. It certainly fits their MO, couple that with the real world death and it all lines up... but it's still all circumstantial."

"It's not an easy call."

"No, but it's made. Now you should follow your own advice and get some sleep."

At the thought of rest, a second yawn escaped Shirai's lips.

"All right," she agreed. "But I'll be taking the cot in the back, if I still hear you clattering around by the time I'm turning my lights off, I'm going to come back here and crack some skulls."

"Yes ma'am,"

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

* * *

**Hey everyone, sorry this chapter took me so long to get out. Between the re-writes and a bunch of life stuff, it's been a long time coming. Hopefully it was all worth it and you enjoyed actually getting to see a bit of action and horror this time around. **

**Next chapter is going through a lot of re-writes too. When I do my stories, I try to keep them fully within the established cannon. I haven't yet finished War of The Underworld yet, but it's given me a few ideas for things I could do here later; however I'm trying to be vague about them in case they are clarified later in the series that I haven't got to yet. **

**I'm not going to promise a release date for the next chapter, because I really have no clue, just know that this story is always, at the very least, in the back of my mind somewhere and I will get it out eventually. **

**Thanks so much for reading, I'll see you all next time!**

**\- Tawnis**


	4. Fractured Code: Chapter 4

**Chapter IV – Plan of Action:**

It had been nearly two weeks since they had started ETO and nearly all of their free time had been spent trying to catch up to the top players and have a shot at facing The Reaper. Most of them didn't have any trouble with the arrangement, but Asuna found it particularly hard to manage.

She was still managing to get all her schoolwork done, albeit barely, so at least her mother wasn't cracking down too hard on her yet. Even so, she was quickly running out of excuses as to why she had to go out every night.

I wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't on such a timetable, but a few days earlier, Agent Nishiyama had informed them that there had been another pair of fatalities. A gamer in the south side of Tokyo had killed their spouse and then taken their own life. Though it had not been publicly linked to ETO, Asuna and the others all knew better.

"Asuna?"

"Hm?" she instinctively replied, coming back to reality.

She and Kirito were sitting across from each other at a table in the Dicey Cafe. It was their fist and likely only night off from diving into ETO, but she still couldn't think of much else. Asuna had barely touched her salad, but Kirito had already polished off the burger he'd ordered. Now he just sat there looking at her with an aura of concern.

"What?" She asked.

"You were a million miles away for a minute there." he replied. "You've barely touched your food."

"Just missing the days in Aincrad."

"Wait, for real?"

Asuna smiled ruefully. "It used to feel so hard... being surrounded by all that death and danger; but at least there we were the best, we could face down anything that came our way. Out here the death and danger have somehow remained, but now we're playing catch up."

"You're thinking about the other two deaths?"

Asuna was silent for a few seconds before she finally nodded. "And however many more will suffer in the time it takes us to figure this all out."

"We're doing everything we can. Try to think about all the people we'll be saving as oppose to those we've lost."

"Were it so easy." she replied sullenly.

"Is that how you think of our time in Aincrad?"

Asuna looked up, a questioning expression on her face.

"You said that you missed the days in Aincrad, but how many died before we were able to clear that game?" Kirito asked.

Asuna's face darkened ad many bitter memories flooded back for a moment. "More than I care to count."

"Do you blame yourself for their deaths too?"

"A few... ones that fought and died beside me on the front lines... but for the most part, no. We fought as hard as we could, we did everything in our power, and eventually we won."

"It's no different now. We may not be forced into it like before, but we're still doing everything we can. With everything that's happened over the past few years, sometimes, to me at least, it feels like we never really left Aincrad."

Asuna squeezed Kirito's hand gently. "Thanks." she said.

Kirito couldn't help but awkwardly blush a little. "You're welcome, for whatever it was I said that helped."

"Nothing specific, just being here and talking with me was all I think I really needed."

"Always." he replied with a smile.

Asuna looked down at Kirito's hand in hers. Sometimes it felt like they were so in synch that they shared the same brain, but other times...

"Kirito?" she said quietly.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I need you to promise me something."

Kirito hesitated before responding, the look on Asuna's face was the same one she had worn when they had their fight before the seventy-fifth floor boss. He had the instant sinking feeling that he had somehow done or said something wrong or stupid, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out what that was.

"Uhh... what is it?" he asked cautiously.

"No more going it alone, I need you to promise me."

"What are you talking about?" Kirito asked, more than a little puzzled. "We're all in it together this time."

"But you didn't know that when you agreed, and you never thought to ask me what I felt before you accepted the job."

"Wait, are you saying that you would have turned him down?"

"No, that's not it, I just want you to care what I think about big decisions. We're partners, even if we are on the same page, we should still make the decision together."

"I was the one that released the world seed, I have a responsibility to-"

"You're also the one who married me and adopted Yui; you have a responsibility to us as well!"

Asuna let go of Kirito's hand and they both sat in silence for a few moments.

"Look, I'm not going to stop you from trying to do something that means so much to you. That burning determination is one of the many things I love about you. I just want to be part of the process, as a partner should be."

Kirito was silent for a few moments more before he finally met the gaze of the woman he loved.

"Okay," he said. "I promise that I won't go it alone anymore."

Asuna took his hand once more and squeezed it tight. "Thank you." she said, leaning forward and giving him a light but loving kiss.

"We're not interrupting anything are we?" Klein's voice snapped Asuna back to the world around them causing her to quickly retreat back to her chair.

Neither Kirito or Asuna had noticed that Klein, Liz, and Sinon had arrived at their table with heir own food a moment ago.

"N...no." Kirito stammered. "We were just-"

"Going a little overboard with the PDA?" Liz interjected.

Kirito slumped back into his own chair with a grumpy scowl. As far as he was concerned, he and his girlfriend should be free to kiss whenever they damn well pleased. He was about to shoot back a retort when Liz's phone starting going off.

She flipped it up and instantly a sad look shrouded her face. "It's Silica again."

"We can't keep ditching her forever." Asuna said, "She's already getting really upset with us."

"Well we also can't bring her along," Sinon replied. "Agent Nishiyama was clear, no one under eighteen."

"He needs our help, we should be able to field the party we see fit." Kirito rebuked.

"I don't dispute that," Sinon stated. "The problem is that we're on his payroll and using his tech, we kinda need to play by his rules."

Liz sent a quick text back about heading to bed early and turned off her phone.

"Well that still leaves us in a rough situation, if we can't bring Silica along, it leaves us one party member short." Klein noted.

"There's not much we can do about that." Kirito said. "Silica, Leafa, and Agil are out; that means no dice IRL and I sure don't plan on exposing anyone digital to ETO when we still don't know what the effects are."

"I'm sure as hell not letting Yui in there." Asuna insisted. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine when she remembered the fate of the astronomy teacher on their first quest.

"My thoughts exactly." Kirito confirmed. "I think we're doing fine as is."

"Okay then hotshot, do you think we've got what it takes to down this Reaper guy?" Klein pressed, plunking down in a seat next to Kirito.

"Honestly, it's hard to say." Kirito replied. "None of the footage online has been that great quality, so it's hard to get a sense of his fighting style. I don't think there's any way to find out short of actually taking him on."

"Man, I was never any good at getting any rest before a big fight, I don't think I'll be sleeping much tonight." Klein moaned.

Kirito's phone now cut into the conversation; the caller ID listed it as Agent Nishiyama.

"Hello." Kirito answered.

"I'm sorry to intrude, I know I gave you all the night off."

"It's okay, what's up?"

"I need everyone to come back to the lab right away, Argo just heard of something going on in ETO that may give us our first real clue into this mess. We'll fill you all in when you get here."

"Okay, everyone's still with me; we're at the Dicey Cafe."

"No surprise there, I'll send Agent Shirai to pick you up right away."

"Looks like our night off just got cancelled." Kirito revealed as he closed his phone.

"For real!?" Liz exclaimed. "This work schedule's going to drive me mad before anything in the game."

Liz's comment got her a few awkward looks.

"I didn't mean to..." Liz sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't make light of things. I'm just really tired."

"I get it, we all are. It's okay." Klein assured her.

Liz looked around the table and everyone else nodded.

The group quickly paid their bill, scarfed down their remaining food, thanked Agil, and headed outside to meet Agent Shirai. The ride back to the lab was full of speculation on what was to come, but no one managed to guess anywhere near the heart of the matter.

* * *

Argo had beaten them all back to the lab and now sat at the head of the same giant table they had found themselves seated at on their first day at the lab.

"Since Argo managed to find this one out, I'll let her brief you." Agent Nishiyama stated.

The mousy young lady looked more than a little awkward at the head of the table, but she managed to tough it out.

"As you all know," she said "the other day another couple died in relation to ETO. It turns out that tonight their guild, Eternal Quintessence, is holding an in game memorial for them."

They had all been to more than their fair share of memorials before. Many in Aincrad, and again with their friend Yuuki had passed, both in game and in the real world.

"Their guild has invited any players who wish to pay their respects to attend the ceremony this evening."

"And you want us to crash the ceremony?" Kirito asked, directing his gaze to Agent Nishiyama.

"Hardly anything so base; besides it's not technically crashing if there is an open invitation." he pointed out. "This is the first chance we've had to speak to people directly associated with one of the ETO victims. It could give us invaluable insight into what's causing all of this."

"He's not wrong." Sinon pointed out.

"That doesn't make him right." Kirito countered. "These people are mourning the loss of two close friends, it would be seriously disrespectful to go poking around at a time like that."

"I'm not crazy about the idea either," Asuna interjected. "Still, if this can help us figure out how to save more people, shouldn't we at least try?"

"Yeah... I suppose." Kirito finally relented. He looked around at everyone else who nodded their assent.

"So, what do we need to know?" Asuna asked.

"As I mentioned, the guild is called Eternal Quintessence." Argo reiterated. "Azra and Astora were co-guild masters; they were also husband and wife IRL. Their guild is understandably torn up over this with their new acting GM Sindoval trying to keep things together. For the moment though, they have suspended all guild activities until after the funeral."

"So how did they know that these two were the victims?" Klein asked. "Not too many people give out their real life info."

"A close real life friend of theirs IRL is also in the guild; Tetsu. He was the one who informed the guild what happened and would be most likely to have the kind of information we're looking for."

"The memorial is being held in the South Church in Arkham city." Argo continued. "Very few combat events take place there, and it is one of the only locations in the world where PVP is not allowed."

"So here's the plan." Agent Nishiyama summarized. "We head over there right away and pay our respects first. Then we start discreetly asking around about anything strange that happened leading up to the death of their GM's. If anyone can get time with Sindoval or Tetsu, that's priority. Any questions?"

The room stood silently affirmative.

"Okay then, let's dive in."

* * *

**Hey everyone, thanks for reading! :)**

**I thought for a long time if this was the right way to go with the story. See I'm not a big fan of time skips and I had originally planned to write the whole story of their first two weeks in ETO doing some quests learning how the game worked, that kind of stuff. However as I went on and on with that, it felt more and more like filler that was keeping me from getting to the meat of the story that needed to be told, so here we are. Hopefully scrapping all that and picking up here was the right call, I guess we'll see.**

**In other news, I'm almost done the first draft of an SAO short story about Asuna and Yui that is unrelated to Fractured Code and I hope to have a polished version of it up in a few weeks. I'm also about halfway done the first draft of chapter 5 so I'm hoping to have that up a few weeks after the short story. Chapter 5 will be about the length of this chapter so I'm hoping that's a reasonable enough timetable. **

**Once again, thank you all for reading, please feel free to leave any comments or critiques and I will see you all next time. :)**


	5. Fractured Code: Chapter 5

Chapter V: Memorial

The city of Arkham was just as drab and downcast as it had been for the past two weeks that Kirito had been logged into ETO. He had finally come to the conclusion that he was never going to see the sun in this world, perhaps it have never even been programmed into that game in the first place. Sure it stood to reason that a bright sunny day would clash with the horror ascetic of the game, but it was getting tiresome fast.

As they walked the dreary streets, Kirito could at least take pride in the fact that they were now equipped much more closely to what they were all accustomed.

He himself sported a black leather duster that had been imbued with a great deal of magical resistance. On his back were a pair of swords to suit his fighting style. One was a sturdy longsword he had picked up and the other was a magical blade with a gleaming pearl inset called The Sword of Re'Leigh; which granted underwater breathing as a bonus effect for some reason. Next to him, Asuna sported a tight red and white hardened leather armour set that reminded him a little of her time in the Knights of the Blood Oath. At her hip was, as always, her trusty rapier; this one though looked like it belonged in a royal court of some kind as it was covered in ornate gold filigree.

Flanking them were Klein and Liz walking in tandem and chatting quietly amongst themselves. Klein had been over the moon the previous day when they had finally gathered enough materials for Liz to forge him a Katana. There wasn't much in terms of eastern style armour, so Klein now looked more like a cowboy with a sword than an actual Samurai. Liz hefted an enchanted smithing hammer that also doubled as a decent beat stick in a fight; her armour however made her look like she had just stepped out of a machine shop.

Argo had acquired a pair of spring loaded Katars that were concealed inside her hooded brown jacket until she needed them. She also found some magical boots that reduced her weight by a substantial amount. With that effect Argo was practically able to run on walls, the downside however was this if she got hit with anything, she was sent flying like a rag doll. Fortunately, she was swift enough that it had only happened the one time it took them to realize that drawback.

Sinon had been less fortunate in the loot department as they had yet to locate her any kind of sniper rifle. Argo had confirmed that they were in fact in the game, just incredibly rare. For the moment, she made due with an old Whitworth rifle that had a telescopic sight. While it did look the part, Sinon insisted that it was a Marksman's rifle and not a true Sniper.

Lastly, Agent Nishyama had acquired a few magical items to aid in his spell-casting. Kirito was concerned over the fact that spells in this game cost the player part of their sanity meter, but Agent Nishiyama insisted that it was just a mechanic in the game and didn't actually effect a person's real world sanity.

All and all they felt that they were ready enough, come what may after the memorial. They could spend more time gearing up, but the longer they worked the less proportional their improvement would be, and they were still on the clock. Time was simply a luxury they simply could not afford.

"There it is." Argo stated, pointing towards a massive building at the end of the block.

The large church rose up well above the surrounding buildings. At its apex was a massive steeple with a large bell hanging inside. Now that he thought about it, Kirito recalled hearing bells chime at the top of every hour and wondered if this is where they came from.

An old balding NPC garbed in the robes of a western priest stood at the top of a long rise of stairs and beckoned a few other waiting players into the church. Kirito and Asuna followed suit, leading their party up the stairs and greeting the NPC.

"Good evening," the NPC greeted them. "I am Father Mitchell, do you have an invitation to this evening's events?"

Kirito looked back at a confused Argo who simply shrugged her shoulders.

"Uh... no," he replied. "We weren't told that we needed one."

"That's quite all right," Father Mitchell replied. "Please proceed through the door to your left."

The group nodded politely to the Father as they passed and made their way into the church proper.

Inside the main hall was a massive space with rows and rows of pews stretching out before them. On the right, people were milling about in a semi-organized fashion, either getting things together for the ceremony or consoling friends. Each of them wore some variation of dark aqua attire and Kirito realized quickly that these must all be the members of Eternal Quintessence.

On the left side of the room were a hodgepodge of different players in all kinds of different gear. They looked generally sullen, but few were visibly grieving like some of the players across from them.

Not knowing many players among the population yet, Kirito's party quietly took a vacant pew near the back and waited for the ceremony to begin. Over the next few minutes, most of the other guests also made their way to seats of their own, the venue was so lager though that Kirito's party still sat more-less by themselves.

After only a few minutes, a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with short cut brown hair took to the podium at the front of the hall. He wore a set of hardened leather armour, dyed in the dark aqua colour of his guild with what looked like bronze or brass adornments on the ends. At his hip was an ornate, but well worn, handle of a sheathed cavalry sabre.

"Good evening." His voice was on the deeper side, but wavered slightly as he spoke. "I'd uhh... like to welcome you all this evening. For those who don't know me, I'm Sindoval, acting GM for Eternal Quintessence."

He looked out into the audience for a moment before bringing his gaze back down to the podium where it looked like he'd made himself some notes or something. "I'm umm... not the greatest at public speaking so please bare with me; that was always more of Azra's forte..." Sindoval stopped speaking for a moment, his eyes glazed over and distant before snapping back to the present. "but he's... uhh... not here anymore... as you all know."

Every time he stopped talking, the silence weighted heavily on the audience.

"I wanted to thank you all for being here for us; and them. Knowing that Azra and Astora were so well liked, even outside the guild, is a real testament to their character and their memory."

"I uhh... know that many of our members wanted to come up and speak about their time and memories with our leaders, so I'll... uhh.. turn the podium over to them now."

The next hour consisted of a dozen or so members of Eternal Quintessence coming up and speaking about their lost leaders. From what Kirito heard, they had truly been an amazing and charismatic pair. They had both been fairly new to VRMMO's, yet pulled together a fairly sizable and close knit group of friends and allies in rather short span of time.

When people spoke about Azra and Astora's relationship with each other, it reminded him more than a little about his relationship with Asuna. The thought scared him as well though; if whatever was behind this had turned two people so close against each other, what did that mean for his party?

Sindoval eventually returned to the stage, his eyes now a little red. Kirito suspected that the new guild master had been crying a little during the numerous emotional speeches.

"Again, I uhh... wanted to thank you all for coming, but we don't want to keep you any longer than need be. Please stay and reminisce if you would like, or uhh... head out as you see fit."

The crowd finally stood up and stretched their legs. The two sides of the room slowly started meshing together with players talking about all sorts of things. A few left, but most stayed to be part of the crowd.

"Now's our chance." Agent Nishiyama stated. "We should spread out and see what we can learn."

"Kirito and I will take Sindoval." Asuna stated.

"Sounds good," Nishiyama agreed. "Argo and I will take the guests as we've had a bit more experience with the other players. Sinon, Klein and Liz will take the other members of Eternal Quintessence."

As the group spread out, Asuna and Kirito made their way through the crowd until they came upon Eternal Quintessence's reluctant new leader. Kirito stopped just short, not sure exactly how to break the ice, but Asuna pressed on. As the person currently speaking with Sindoval stepped away, Asuna stepped in.

"We're very sorry for your loss." Asuna offered by way of greeting.

"Thank you," Sindoval replied. "I'm both happy and sad to see how many people this brought out." He paused for a moment, a questioning look on his face. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I don't recall either of you."

"I'm Asuna," she said extending her hand. As Sindoval shook it she also added, "and this is my partner, Kirito."

Sindoval let go of her hand but his arm froze halfway back to his body. "Wait... Asuna and Kirito, THE Asuna and Kirito, from SAO?"

Asuna couldn't help but blush a little at being recognized by name alone. "Yes, that's us," she admitted. "I guess our reputation precedes us."

"Of course it does!" as Sindoval spoke, a light slowly returned to his eyes that they hadn't seen during the proceedings. "My cousin's an SAO survivor, I can't thank you both enough for helping him return home safely. I'm surprised that Azra and Astora never mentioned that they knew you, they knew I'm a huge fan."

"We weren't actually," Asuna admitted. "Though from all the stories we heard today, I certainly wish that we had been. We heard about your event through the grapevine and having gone through this many times ourselves, we wanted to come and offer our condolences."

"That means a lot, I'm sure it will to the others as well; especially Tetsu."

"Tetsu?" Asuna asked. Though Argo had already told her who Tetsu was, Sindoval didn't know that.

"He was a friend of Azra and Astora IRL and one of our founding members, he was even questing with them the day before it happened. Honestly, I think that he blames himself for not seeing the signs, though I suppose we all blame ourselves a little." Sindoval paused for a moment, his eyes seeming to slide off Asuna and focus elsewhere. "He's sitting by himself in the upper balconies he uhh... didn't really want to talk to anyone today... but I think he really needs to."

"Well, we can see what we can do."

As Asuna and Kirito turned to leave, Sindoval called after them.

"How... how do you deal with it all?" he asked.

Asuna turned back to regard the new guild master. In his eyes, she could see the haze that had clouded them throughout the night had returned in earnest.

"It's not so simple an answer that I can easily put it into words." Asuna admitted. "The people you've lost will never leave you completely. While that can be very painful at times, it is also the means that they are able to remain in this world to some extent. They live on within you; in how you choose to honour and remember them."

Kirito smiled warmly at her words. Asuna tended not to open up too much about those they had lost, perhaps his own Stoic attitude was partially to blame now that he though about it. Still, he felt good to see her talk about it to someone in need.

"Thanks," Sindoval said wearily. "I'm not sure that it makes me feel any better, but still... thanks."

"Anytime." she replied before taking Kirito in search of Tetsu.

The pair slowly made their way through the crowd towards a spiral staircase that led to the upper balconies. All around them there was a sense of sorrowful camaraderie that had only been seen once since their escape from SAO.

"That was well said." Kirito told her as they ascended to the upper floor.

"I merely spoke from the heart."

"You always do."

Kirito couldn't see the smile on Asuna's face as they stepped onto the top floor, but in the way her shoulders shifted a little and her posture changed ever so slightly, he was sure it was there.

The top section of the church was dark, lit only by the glow radiating up from the floor below. At first it looked deserted, but their keen eyes quickly spotted a figure sitting alone at a pew in the back. Slowly Asuna and Kirito approached the shadowy figure when a mumble barely registered over the din making it's way up from the floor below.

"Go away."

"You're Tetsu right?" Asuna asked gently.

"I said go away!" He shouted and threw something at her.

Her sharp reflexes caught the object without issue and revealed it to be a small pebble, likely just laying around within arms reach.

"Hey!" Kirito exclaimed, "I get that you're upset, but that was uncalled for!"

"Your presence was uncalled for." he shot back.

"Look, we just wanted to-"

"My best friends just offed themselves and nothing you can do or say will change that. So spare me the goddamned pity party and go the hell away!"

Kirito looked at Asuna's uncertain face, they weren't going to get anywhere like this. He sighed heavily. Government secrets be damned, he was going to get to the bottom of this before anyone else got killed.

"They may have been murdered." Kirito revealed.

Silence filled the top floor of the church; its presence so oppressive that it even seemed to drown out the din from the floor below.

"I said-"

"I heard you." Tetsu shot back, cutting him off. Slowly, purposefully, Tetsu rose to his feet.

A thick cowl covered most of his face, leaving just enough room for his piercing stare to lock onto Kirito. If looks could kill, the death glare he directed at Kirito would have levelled several small cities and it reminded Kirito rather uncomfortably of Morte.

"You think this is funny? Some kind of sick joke perhaps? Where do you get off pulling shit like this? I knew them both IRL, I spoke to the police, I know what really happened; so don't give me that goddamned bullshit!"

"I can prove it." was all Kirito could say in response; but could he even do so? Most of what he knew was hear-say from Agent Nishiyama; all of that did add up with what was going on, but it was hardly concrete proof. Tetsu had at least paused at Kirito's brash statement so it was now or never.

"Tell me if any of this sounds familiar," Kirito began. "They were normal gamers, good people, but after accessing the Innsmouth zone, they began to change. Little things at first, but then they became more and more irrational, violent even. It would be especially obvious to a close friend such as you. Then when they seemed like they would reach their breaking point... they killed each other."

Tetsu stared straight ahead at a complete loss for words.

Asuna looked to her partner nervously. What would Agent Nishiyama do if he found out that Kirito had just blatantly told a stranger everything? Was Agent Shirai monitoring what they were doing from the outside? Did they already know? _I suppose there's nothing I can do about it now. _She thought to herself and decided to let Kirito play this how he wanted.

"How?" Tetsu finally managed. "How the hell do you know all that? It wasn't exact, but it was damn close... Just who the hell are you two?"

"We know it because your friends weren't the first, though we are trying to make them the last. Something has been effecting the minds of the people playing this game and we're going to put a stop to it. My name is Kirito and this is my partner Asuna, we've dealt with this kind of thing before."

"Wait... THE Kirito and Asuna, from SAO?"

"Does everyone in this game know who we are?" Kirito groaned.

"Word spreads fast online, even if the government tries to keep a lid on it. You two are practically legends to most gamers at this point." Tetsu revealed. "Wait, so are you saying that something like SAO is happening here?"

"Not exactly," Asuna chimed in. "As I'm sure you're aware, you are still perfectly capable of logging out of ETO. We don't know exactly what's been going on yet, only that it's already cost a dozen people their lives. We just wanted to speak to you about what happened to your GM's so we can stop this from happening again."

After a moment Tetsu's harsh eyes finally softened and he spoke. "I'm sorry... for how I treated you both." He took a deep breath and stood straight up, a new fire now burning behind his eyes. "How can I help?"

"Sindoval mentioned that you had been questing with them soon before it happened and that you knew them IRL. Can you just start by telling us everything that you remember, both in ETO and out."

"Well everything seemed normal until, as you pointed out, we got to Innsmouth."

Tetsu's eyes glazed over as he began to recall the events, his voice shook slightly and his hands trembled. Asuna felt terribly uncomfortable forcing this young man to relive something so traumatic so soon, but they had to know what was going on.

"After Azra, Astora and I got past The Reaper, we were overjoyed to finally access the last zone in the game. It feels weird to be so excited about going there, the actual town itself was so drab and dilapidated that there was this almost ethereal sense of wrongness about it. I'm not sure how the game designers accomplished that, but we all felt it. It added up with the lore too as after doing a handful of quests we discovered that most of the population of the town are actually very high level monsters in disguise."

"We had just acquired a few quests to seek out a dungeon on a small island off the cost when I had to log due to an issue IRL. Azra and Astora decided to continue on without me; they doubted they could clear the dungeon with just two, but they wanted to see something that few players, if any, had seen before. That was the last I saw of them in game."

"After I took care of my personal business, I checked up on them. They were still logged in and in the dungeon. I'm not sure how long you've been playing ETO, but here, you can't message in or out of dungeons so I assumed they were still just sneaking around and exploring it all. However, they missed their usual log out time and played well into the early morning, which was very unlike them."

"When they did finally log out, they both messaged me... and that's when I knew something was terribly wrong." Tetsu looked down at the floor, he couldn't keep the tears from falling from his eyes. "They were furious with each other, over what it was hard to tell; all the texts I got were rambling and incoherent. They tried to get me to pick sides, something that I never would have imagined from either of them. Then... nothing."

"They didn't log in the next day and didn't return any of my calls or texts. The day after that, I received a call from the police... Azra and I were childhood friends and he had been a bit estranged from his family, so I was his emergency contact." Tetsu paused for a moment, as if he needed to summon the courage to continue his tale.

"The police told me..." Tetsu covered his face with the sleeve of his robe, as if trying to shield himself from he memory. "I'll spare you the details and just say the police told me that they killed each other. I didn't believe it... they wouldn't... they couldn't... some stupid fight never would have done that to them. But I had to come in and see the bodies for identification... and it was true."

"I'm sorry," Asuna said as she put her hand on Tetsu's shoulder. "I know that wasn't easy."

"Did... did it help?" he managed while wiping away tears.

"Well it does give us a lead," Kirito noted. "Before we just knew that something was effecting players in Innsmouth; from your story though, it seems like this dungeon is the first place to start looking."

Tetsu nodded but didn't say anything else.

"If you don't mind, I do have one more question for you." Kirito said.

"Yeah... sure. Can't be worse than the last one right?"

"What do you know about The Reaper, what was it like to fight them? All the information we've come across is shoddy at best and we're going to need to get past them to get to Innsmouth."

"I'm afraid I can't be much help there as I didn't actually fight him. Azra, Astora, and I all used high sneak skills to evade detection to sneak past him while the rest of the guild fought. I never even laid eyes on The Reaper. If you want information like that, you'll have to talk to Sindoval, he lead the attack on The Reaper. All I know is that they got their asses handed to them."

"Thanks, we'll make sure to talk to him about it," Asuna noted. "We won't bother you any more."

"Wait, hold up." Tetsu nearly shouted as they turned to leave. "Here." he said.

Kirito and Asuna both had a small window pop up. _Accept friend request: Tetsu?_

"If you find anything out, anything at all, please let me know. I... I have to know what really happened to them, who or what was really behind it."

"Or course," Kirito said as he hit the accept icon. "And thanks again."

As Kirito and Asuna descended the stairs, Asuna finally gave voice to something she had been wondering. "Hey, I noticed that you didn't tell him not to talk about anything we said."

"Yeah... I thought about it, but I figured he'd have the same reservations that I do, and since we may need his help later I didn't want to burn any bridges. Besides, I don't think he'll tell anyone and risk tipping off whoever is behind this; he wants this solved as badly as we do, if not more so."

Asuna stopped halfway down the steps and grabbed Kirito's shoulder, pulling him to a halt as well.

"What reservations?" she asked.

"This whole cloak and dagger routine." he admitted. "Look, I know we've got to catch whoever is behind this, and that we can't risk tipping them off, you're right, you're all right. But even so, what if this had gone public earlier? Would Azra and Astora have stopped playing? Would they still be alive? I bet that's the first thing that Tetsu would have wondered if we'd told him we had to keep quiet."

"I know it's hard, but if we tip off whoever is behind this, they could escape and do even more damage elsewhere."

"I know, I know. It's the right decision, but it doesn't make me feel any better about it."

Asuna gently squeezed Kirito's shoulder. "Come on," she said. "The sooner we solve this, the sooner this world can go back to normal."

"Right." Kirito agreed and the pair made their way back down to the main floor.

The crowd had dissipated a bit in their absence, but there were still quite a few people milling about. As they looked about the room they saw the other members of their party casually chatting with the guests, gathering what info they could, except for Argo who was nowhere to be seen. It took a moment, but they soon found Sindoval still speaking with guests.

A few seconds after they got to him, Sindoval noticed them and quickly said goodbye to the players he was speaking with.

"Did you have any luck with Tetsu?" he asked.

"I think so," Asuna said. "It'll take him a long time to heal, but I think he's on the right track."

The smile that the had briefly seen earlier returned to Sindoval face when he heard her words. "Thank you both so much. With everything in disarray many of our members have been turning to Tetsu, but he has been rather... terse with them. It means a lot to me that you tried to help, and even more that you may have been able to do so. If you ever need a favour, I'm your man."

"It's funny you should say that," Kirito noted, "because we do."

Sindoval gave a genuine chuckle. "Wow, most people would wait a full ten seconds before calling in a favour."

"We're sorry," Asuna said. "We know this is a bad time, we can talk to you later."

"It's okay, don't worry." Sindoval insisted. "I was just trying to be funny, I guess I don't really have my sense of humour back yet. What do you need?"

"Tetsu mentioned in passing that you'd fought The Reaper. What was it like?" Kirito asked.

"You're thinking of taking on that psycho? Your funeral." Sindoval sighed. "There are lots of people who think he's some kind of AI designed to just wreck anyone trying to get to Innsmouth, but he's not."

"What makes you say that?"

"They way he fought; there's no way that was an AI. It was a person sure as sure, a very skilled person but a person none the less."

"Wait, so you think he's just another player?" Asuna asked.

"No, he's not just another player, he's a damn cheater."

Kirito couldn't help but be stung by the words a little bit, he remembered the exact same allegation being thrown at him when he took the fall for the other beta testers on the first floor on Aincrad. "What makes you say that?" he asked.

"He's good for sure, I could see his natural talent in the way he played, but it was far beyond what it should have been. The way he moved, reacted, the crazy gear he had, no one in the game has gotten anywhere close to as far as he has. There's no way he got that far on his own, especially guild-less since there was no guild title listed under his name."

"Damn, he's really that good?" Kirito asked.

"Better. He was so fast we could barely keep track of him. We managed a few glancing blows we he dove into larger groups to cut multiple players down at once, but having had more time to think about the fight, I think he knew he was going to take those hits and knew it was worth taking out those players for. I was one of the last to go down and his health was barely below eighty percent when he got me."

"I guess it makes sense why no one has been able to get decent video of him."

"That's not surprising; when he hits you... it's like a force of nature. He targeted our healers and support players first with astounding efficiency. It threw our whole raid into disarray and he took apart the remaining groups pretty easily."

Kirito and Asuna exchanged glances, they knew this was going to be hard, but at least they had a bit more information on their target now.

"So what guild are you going with?"

"Oh, we don't have a guild; so it's just our party,"

Sindoval started blankly at them for a moment, unable to believe the words he just heard. He couldn't help but let out a small laugh when what he heard finally registered in full. "Wow, I would never have expected to actually laugh today. No offence, but I give your party thirty seconds, tops." He looked between their dead serious faces and his humour washed away for a moment. "Though I suppose that if anyone is going to be able to pull something like that off, it's going to be the heroes of Aincrad. I'd offer the assistance of Eternal Quintessence to help, but we're not really in any shape to raid right now."

"Another time perhaps." Asuna replied with a smile.

"Count on it." Sindoval agreed. "Best of luck to you both, you're going to need it."

"Thanks." Kirito said as he waved Sindoval a casual goodbye.

He and Asuna slowly weaved through the crowds, both of their minds already focused on tactics and strategy for combating The Reaper. With their mission accomplished, at least for the moment, they slowly picked up the rest of their party who were finishing up their own queries and made their way back out into the city of Arkham.

* * *

The party made their way north to a place called Velma's Diner where they could discus everything in peace and quiet. It was a small but well kept little restaurant that Argo had found out about. The walls were simple stained wood and the domed lights overhead left a soft warm yellow glow about the place. Despite the diner seeming like a dive from the outside, anything that touched food was immaculately polished to the point of reflection. It was one of the few places in ETO world that Kirito didn't feel overwhelmed by the dreary ambiance.

The party had shared their findings on the walk over to the diner, but hadn't done any solid planning. Most of what the others heard matched up with everything Asuna and Kirito had leaned, so they at least had a bit more of a picture of what they were up against.

"So," Agent Nishiyama said as he passed out a round of drinks, "what's your take on The Reaper. We'll have to take him out of the picture before we can do anything about Innsmouth."

"Well protecting you should be out first priority." Asuna noted. "If he is consistent in targeting healers and support members first, he'll take you out then move on to Liz before coming after the rest of us."

"Given that it's safe to assume this guy is way stronger than us on an individual level, focusing our defence in one spot does seem like the best plan." Kirito agreed.

"True, but it could be just as dangerous to put all of our eggs in one basket" Sinon noted. "We still don't know everything that this guy is capable of, if he surprises us with a massive AoE that we can't counter, then it's over just like that."

"So what do you suggest instead?" Agent Nishiyama asked.

"Something similar, still using you as the focal point. Even without a sniper rifle, I can still cover a fair range and you all know I'm the best shot around. I'll hang back with a spotter, Argo would probably be best, and cover you while you try to draw him into a direct confrontation."

"That could work," Asuna agreed. "However, if he's as fast as everyone says, once your position is made, we may not be able to pull back and cover you in time."

"I know, but I'm hoping that our party comp will help us there."

"How so?" Asked Klein. "We're still a man down."

"Exactly. He'll see a party that's missing a member, if he thinks that there is someone out there he can't see, it may give him enough pause for you to cover me in that event."

"That's a pretty big if." Liz pointed out.

"Look, no plan is going to be foolproof. I think we all know the odds are pretty stacked against us going into this in the first place, I'm just trying to even them a little."

"I like Sinon's plan and I don't mind playing the bait." Agent Nishiyama said. "Our limited numbers give us limited options, so unless anyone has a better plan, I say that's the one we go with."

No one at the table disagreed.

"Prefect. Now, onto The Reaper himself. I know it's going to be hard to judge how best to fight him without actually doing so, but is there any edge we can gleam from what little we've learned?"

"The problem is that most of what we've heard is guesswork and conjecture at best." Asuna stated. "No one really knows anything about this guy, or if he even is a guy."

The group shared a few defeated stares on the subject, he was still a complete mystery.

"I do know one thing." Kirito noted.

All the eyes at the table turned to him in unison.

"Now, to be fair, this is based on the assumption that Sindoval's read of him being a player is true, but from the way Sindoval spoke about The Reaper, I'm inclined to believe that it is."

"Go on." Agent Nishiyama prompted.

"If The Reaper is in fact another player, and is not cheating the system in any way, they would have to be full time. It's the only thing that makes sense, the only way they could have shot so far ahead of so many hardcore gamers in the fairly short lifetime of this game in the Japan."

The rest of the group nodded as they started to see the foundation he was laying.

"But that begs the question as to why." Asuna said.

"Exactly. Aside from wondering why anyone would full time in a world this bleak, what's The Reaper's motive? What does he gain by taking on all of these players day in and day out?"

"Could just be fore the kicks." Sinon noted. "I've met a lot of PKers who just what to see how big of a challenge they can overcome, how many people the can best. Blocking off the final zone could be his way of funnelling all the top players together and forcing them all to take him on."

"That's true," Agent Nishiyama noted. "The high skill cap of ETO does make it the perfect game for that mentality and style of play. Still, I have a hard time thinking that they are unconnected to everything that been happening in Innsmouth. I think it's more likely that he's a guardian to keep people from seeing what's really going on."

"There is another possibility." Argo stated, finally joining the conversation.

"And that is?" Agent Nishiyama asked.

"Well, so far as we can tell, everything bad that's been happening to players has been happening in Innsmouth and this player is perverting thousands of other players from accessing the zone. What if he's aware of the same thing we are and is trying to keep people away?"

Everyone at the table stared at Argo wide eyed. None of them had thought of that possibility since Agent Nishiyama had noted that The Reaper was their first lead.

"We should try to capture The Reaper instead of defeating him." Argo suggested.

"That's crazy." Agent Nishiyama scoffed. "The fight is going to be hard enough as it is. Taking him alive instead of just beating him and moving on adds another layer of complexity to an already incredibly complicated fight. People's lives are at stake here, we can't afford to take chances or pull our punches."

"But he may have information that we need." Argo countered. "A lack of information can get you killed just as easily as a blade or a bow."

"Okay, hold up." Aunsa very nearly needed to shout to get between their rising voices. "You both make a valid point. I propose that if at all possible we try to disable him, but if he proves too much then we take him out and move on. All agreed?"

The table nodded their heads in unison with the exception of Agent Nishiyama. "I still think that it's too big of a risk," he stated bluntly. "That being said, I brought you all on for your skills and expertise. If you think that you're all capable of this, I will go along with it. Just remember that if we lose, that's more time wasted and a higher chance that someone else will pay the price."

"We're well aware." Asuna stated. "This isn't the first time we've had to make tough calls with lives hanging in the balance. We're ready for this."

"Very well." Agent Nishiyama ceded. "It's clear I cannot dissuade you."

With a quick swig, Agent Nishiyama downed the last of his drink and acceded his menu. "It's getting late and we all have a hell of a fight waiting of us tomorrow, you'd all better rest up. We meet back at the lab at nine AM sharp and take this Reaper down."

"Or capture him." Argo put in.

"Or that." Agent Nishiyama agreed before logging out.

A few moments later the rest of them followed suit, all worried to some degree about the coming battle in the morning.

* * *

**Hello everyone, glad you could join me once more for the latest chapter. :) **

**Not too much to say on this one, but as always and thoughts and critiques are more than welcome. I've cut out and re-structured a lot form what I had originally planned to do with this story and I am a little worried that I may not be seeing the forest for the trees as far as general pace and structure go.**

**I am really excited to get to the next chapter so I'm hoping I'll be able to get it written up a little sooner than usual. When I was first conceptualising this story, the fight with The Reaper was basically the first thing I put together and I'm stoked to finally be able to write it. **

**Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll get you the next one as soon as I can. **


	6. Fractured Code: Chapter 6

Chapter VI: The Reaper

Kirito would have liked to say that the sun was rising over the treeline, but in truth it was more a matter of the light becoming more pronounced, their path becoming a little clearer. He and his party had met at the crack of dawn, logged in, and made their way to the confrontation they had all been prepping for since they started playing ETO. They had taken the train from Arkham city to the nearby town of Ipswich and now made their way out of the town to a nearby station where the bus to Innsmouth stopped.

As the group trudged along the well worn dirt road, Asuna twitched as something, then turned to regard a message on her UI. Her eyes unfocused, Kirito casually kept watch to make sure that no tripping hazards were in her path until she finished reading.

"That was the last one, still no luck." She eventually said to him.

"I suppose it was a long shot, still it was nice of them all to get back to you so quickly." he replied.

After Kirito's revelation about The Reaper likely being a full timer, Asuna decided to check in with the Sleeping Knights to see if any of them knew of any other terminal patients that might be diving full time. She had even reached out to Doctor Kuruhasi to see if there had been any new patients using the Medicuboid. He couldn't say much due to doctor/patient confidentiality, but he did confirm that he didn't know of anyone logged into ETO.

"Eyes up, we're here." Agro stated.

It wasn't entirely accurate as they could barely see the bus station in the distance, but they didn't risk getting any closer as a group. There was plenty of tree cover around and Sinon and Argo made use of it right away, disappearing into the forest.

Kirito waited five minutes to be sure they were in position before the remainder of the party moved on. Klein took the lead followed by Agent Nishiyama. Asuna took Nishiyama's right while Kirito took his left, with Liz as the rear guard.

The transit station leading to Innsmouth was, to no great surprise, an old dilapidated building. The crumbling brick and mortar structure had lost most of its exterior colour and the raw tinge of the brick itself was now the dominant pallet of the place. The wooden roof was rotted and broken in several places, but still somehow held to the ghost of it's original triangular shape. Out front, next to the road, was a sign with only one of the bolts still holding it in place; on it was written _Innsmouth transit_ in faded letters.

There were a few other buildings around in the same broken down state as the station, at a glance though, Kirito couldn't tell if they served any purpose other than a convenient hiding place for The Reaper. As they neared the station, a brief scent of old fish carried along the breeze and churned the stomachs of the party.

They walked towards the stop slowly and purposefully, eyes darting from shadow to shadow. He had to be around here somewhere. Soon they would be within range of the stop and be able to call the Innsmouth bus, if he was going to attack them, it had to be soon.

Suddenly, Kirito thought of something he hadn't anticipated. It had been weeks since he had spent any time in Alfhiem Online, but having played that game for so long the instincts still stuck with him. Kirito looked up.

Descending from that darkened sky was a figured clad in black, both spinning and falling at an incredible speed. "Abo-" he started to shout, and was vaguely aware of Sinon's voice doing the same, but it was already too late.

A grisly weapon, the likes of which Kirito had never seen, flashed from The Reapers' bellowing cloak; the image burning itself into Kirito's mind. The shaft of the scythe had two short handles protruding out of it, much like agricultural scythes of old, that The Reaper used to control it. However it was the blade itself that was the strangest of all as it was a massive slab of metal affixed to the top third of the shaft. It still more-less maintained it's crescent shape but he could tell, even at a distance, that unlike normal scythes both the edges of the crescent shape were razor sharp. There was a large spike protruding from the opposite end of the blade; this weapon was deadly from all angels. On top of that the blade was so large that it almost seemed like a large bladed shield was being swung around on a pole to slice and impale people.

Kirito's party had barley turned to react to his shout when The Reaper's scythe, pinwheeling from up above, plunged into Agent Nishiyama's chest sending him flying from the group and crashing into one of the nearby buildings. Barely had Nishiyama's health hit zero when The Reaper, now having landed in the middle of the party, swung his scythe in a wide three-sixty arc.

Kirito, Asuna, Klein, and Liz all managed to get their weapons up to block in time, but even so, the force of the blow was staggering and sent them all reeling. The Reaper moved in on Liz first, just as they had expected, but a moment before he could bring his weapon down a bullet struck him in the torso throwing him off balance and dropping his health to ninety-four percent. Undeterred, The Reaper rolled with the force of the impact by swerving around Liz's guard and then dashed off to the treeline to locate the source of the bullet.

Asuna and Kirito blazed past Liz a moment later in hot pursuit. "We've got to hurry!" Asuna shouted. "This guy is way faster than we thought. If we don't catch up to him, Sinon and Argo are done for!"

* * *

Sinon and Argo sat atop a massive tree branch dozens of feet in the air, covered from sight by the thick branches and leaves surrounding them. Their position was now compromised after Sinon's opening shot, but they had known all along that it was bound to happen.

"Are you sure about this?" Argo asked.

"Yes, now go before he sees you!" Sinon snapped before loosing another round.

The Reaper was fast, incredibly so, but still Sinon was able to keep most of her shots on target. It didn't matter much once the dark figure had a line on her position though. Every one of the rounds that came close was deflected off The Reaper's massive blade with a lightning quick flick of his wrists. Sinon knew there was no chance of loosing her target and relocating to a new spot, so she fired off as many rounds as she could; even a fraction of a second delay to her target meant that Kirito and the others were that much closer.

Four rounds later, The Reaper had closed the gap and launched himself at her hiding spot. Sinon quickly spring-boarded back leaping blindly from the tree and keeping her rifle trained on her target as her turned her former perch into mulch. She fired off another round that was summarily turned aside before The Reaper dove after her, connecting with her mid fall.

Sinon brought her rifle up, one hand on the stock, the other on the barrel and met The Reapers slash. In one blow her gun was cloven and two, but it managed to prevent the intended decapitation and instead she took a nasty slash to the torso. Her health dropped to forty-one percent from the blow, then she hit the ground pinwheeling until she slammed against the base of a thick tree; her health now down to a mere twelve percent.

The Reaper didn't waste a moment, he landed gracefully and was off like a flash, headed straight for her. Sinon had a backup sidearm, but she knew it would do no good. This was where her fight was going to end, but she would end it on her terms. The moment that The Reaper was in striking distance, Sinon whipped out a belt of grenades, the pins already pulled a moment earlier. She saw his instinct take over, The Reaper skidded to a halt and leaped backward in an instant. The last thing Sinon did before being engulfed in the explosion was to offer The Reaper a sly wink.

The nearby trees were ripped apart by the force of the blast, but the Reaper was already out of range. However, he had leaped back on instinct without checking was was behind him first.

Argo's duel Katars dug deep into The Reapers back, dropping his health to forty-seven percent. She had waited silently for this exact moment, when he would be in midair in the exact spot Sinon had intended and unable to change his path. However, once the initial blow failed to kill him, it was all Argo could to just to hold on.

The pair tumbled through the air together, Argo trying desperately to hang on and The Reaper trying just as hard to remove her. His left hand maintained a hold of his scythe, while his right reached over his shoulder, grabbing for Argo. Just before they hit the ground, The Reaper's hand found purchase and took hold of Argo bu the scruff of her collar.

They hit the ground in a roll, but The Reaper was now in control of their momentum. The first roll pressed Agro's slightly further into his back, dropping his health to forty-five percent, but as his front came up, he rolled up onto his feet and using that momentum to swing, flung Argo from his his back.

Her Katars came free as Argo was hurled through the air as if she were no more than a tiny pebble. She crashed hard into a tree on the centre of her back and dropped like a rag doll to it's roots. Her health still read fifty-eight percent, but a new debuff had appeared next to it, _Broken Back_. Try as she might, she could barely move a muscle and the next thing she realized, The Reaper's scythe descended upon her.

* * *

Kirito and Asuna burst onto the scene just as Argo's health hit zero. The Reaper calmly tuned to face them, but Kirito could see a twitch of movement as he scanned the surrounding underbrush. A few moments later, Klein and Liz caught up, their weapons at the ready. They were down three of seven players, but had taken out over half of The Reaper's health, mathematically they were a little ahead, but being down to only four people greatly reduced their options.

"Get him on the defensive!" Kirito shouted, charging forth with Asuna at his side.

Kirito swung high with one blade and as it was turned aside by the scythe, he stabbed low with his other. That too was turned aside by the metallic hilt of The Reaper's scythe. Asuna stuck in the next instant, her rapier flashing towards the Reapers chest, but his blade had already moved from Kirito's strike and turned hers aside.

Klein came in from the side trying to catch The Reaper off guard, but his foe leaped to the side, right towards Liz. She brought her mace down towards The Reaper but he hooked her weapon with the crescent of his scythe and pushed it harmlessly to the side. In the same motion he brought the pommel up and hit Liz in the head. She stumbled back, a dazed icon flashing on her UI and The Reaper moved in for the kill.

Asuna and Kirito were on him in an instant, protecting their friend by pushing their foe back with a flurry of blows. Their blows stuck like lightning, but The Reaper dodged, blocked, or parried every one. His hands flew between the different grips on his scythe, rotating the weapon with extreme precision at angles Kirito would have never imagined possible. Though they could not land a strike, their attacks were so fast, co-coordinated, and relentless, that they also prevented him from striking back against them.

Eventually, an attack faltered. The Reaper was able to deflect Asuna's rapier into one of Kitiro's strikes and create an opening for himself. He slashed in a wide arc, driving the pair back a few paces and before Klein could capitalize on the opening, he backpedalled, and bid a hasty retreat.

"Don't let him get away and recover!" Kirito shouted and tore off after The Reaper, Asuna milliseconds behind him.

The Reaper slashed at the trees as he ran, toppling several in the direction of his pursuers, but Asuna and Kirito were not deterred. They evaded the falling timber with ease, loosing little time as they fought to close the gap with their target.

Moments later, The Reaper broke from the treeline with Asuna and Kirito in hot pursuit. He made for one of the nearby buildings and with a graceful ease, leaped through an open window and into the old building. Asuna and Kirito leaped in after him, ready for a counter-attack.

It came just as they expected. After entering the building, The Reaper about faced and swept a long horizontal slash, aimed for their legs as they came through the window. Asuna and Kirito were ready for an attack however, they had their swords ahead and together with the force of their momentum, were able to block and push the blow back.

Asuna struck back first, pushing The Reaper into a narrow hallway she activated the strongest skill she had in her arsenal. Her blade shone for a brief moment as she initiated the Mother's Rosary skill. Her blade bolted like her namesake, flashed like lightning, every shot, every strike, targeted to deal The Reaper a fatal blow. Yet his reflexes and skill were not to be outdone, each strike was intercepted bu the narrowest of margins, each thrust missing him by mere millimetres. Weathering such a brutal assault however took everything he had and The Reaper had no way of bringing his weapon to bear when Kirito struck from the side.

While Asuna had their target on the back foot, Kirito moved in for the kill. He could see every strike as they connected, every movement of their bodies in the dance of life and death. The Black Swordsman had survived so long off being able to read any fight he came across, he could take a measure of a warrior upon seeing their blade work, he knew that as good as The Reaper was, he would be unable to block this strike.

As Kirito thrust his blade forward intent on the killing blow, time seemed to slow. The Reapers right leg shifted ever so slightly, the tip of his foot disappearing behind something, what was it? It was hard to tell, everything was moving so slowly, Kirito couldn't shift his gaze to see. The feeling was familiar and it nagged at his mind even as he strained to see, like he'd experienced something like this before; he knew he'd felt something like this before.

A door that had been slightly ajar, swung wide with incredible speed. Kirito didn't have time to avoid it as he was already committed to the attack, all he could do was shoulder the blow instead of taking it in the face. The impact sent him spinning and knocked a few percent off his health, but he avoided the deadly dazed debuff.

Instantly Asuna fell back to protect Kirito, adopting a defensive posture as he quickly recovered; but The Reaper did not pursue them directly. Instead, he leaped back, well out of range, and used his scythe to obliterate a pair of load baring walls. As he made a fast escape through an adjacent window, the rickety old building came down around Asuna and Kirito's heads.

* * *

As Klein and Liz, now fully recovered from her dazed debuff, made their way out of the felled forest and into the clearing they saw the house come down in a cloud of dust and debris. Klein's eyes shot to his party's status, Kirito and Asuna's HP had taken a large blow, but had stopped dropping. They were still alive in there.

His thoughts now turned to both Liz's and his own survival as out of the dust cloud came the Reaper. Undiminished from his bout with Asuna and Kirito, he blade a path straight for them, his wicked scythe whistling in the wind ans he ran.

Klein readied his Katana and steadied his footing. "We take him together or we've got no chance." he said.

"Right." Liz replied, taking position next to him. Her buckler in front and her mace drawn back and ready. Her arms were strong and steady, but inwardly she was shaking. _What chance __d__o we have if Kirito and Asuna couldn't stop this guy?_ She asked herself.

The Reaper made for Liz first, taking a quick swipe with his scythe to gauge their reaction. Klein, wasn't having any of that though, as Liz moved to block the strike, he pressed the attack, coming in with a wide overhead slash.

While still maintaining his forward momentum, The Reaper lowered the thrust of his scythe to an upward strike. With the hilt now high in the air, he used it's change back to downward motion to turn Klein's blow aside, while still pressing the attack on Liz.

She blocked the main sweep of his scythe with her buckler, but as she began to swing her counter-attack, the crescent tip of the Reapers Scythe hooked itself under the lip of her buckler. With a solid tug, The Reaper pulled her off balance and toward him, slamming her in the sternum with the centre of his scythe's handle. Winded, Liz stumbled back, her heath dropped to sixty-eight percent and The Reaper moved in for the kill.

With a defiant roar, Klein sprang into action once more deflecting the blow and placing himself between The Reaper and Liz.

"Hands off." he ordered, and returned his blade to a ready stance.

The Reaper wasted no time in thrusting with his Scythe, the sharpness on both ends making it deadly in that style too. Klein met the strike head on, blocking it at the point where the blade connected to the haft. The pair struggled for a moment, pushing against each others blades until The Reapers full strength became apparent and Klein began to slide backwards.

Klein knew he would loose if The Reaper got to much momentum going, he had to shake things up. He used The Reapers forward momentum against him, suddenly giving ground he let the strike carry forward, but directed the momentum lower with a parting shove, then striking high.

The strike aimed for The Reapers head, but Klein hadn't counted on how versatile this strange weapon was, or how well The Reaper could wield it. The back end of the haft came up, just barely turning Klein's strike clear of the left side of the Reaper's head. Now The Reaper's scythe blade was in position just next to Klein's right leg and with a quick pull back, The Reaper severed it.

Just as Klein began to drop to the ground, a mace swung fast over his falling form. "Don't underestimate us!" Liz shouted as her mace connected with The Reaper's right shoulder, dropping his hit points to twenty-three percent and sending him spinning.

Ever the adaptive foe, The Reaper turned the strike to his advantage. He rotated with the force of the blow and extended his scythe wide in a quick spin attack. Liz's momentum was still forward from the strike and she couldn't rotate fast enough to get her guard back up. A moment later, she was bisected at the waist and her HP instantly dropped to zero.

Klein roared in defiance, and swung at The Reaper's legs, but he had little force behind the blow now that he was on the ground. The Reaper swiftly turned the blow aside and brought his blade down upon Klein's head, removing him from the fight.

* * *

When the building came down around them, Asuna had instinctively used her body to shield Kirito who had still been reeling from the Reaper's dirty trick. As such, she took the brunt of the damage, her HP was now down to twenty-two percent while Kirito's was still at sixty-seven.

It looked like only part of the house had actually fallen on and around them. They were both on the ground in a rather compromising position, yet they were still able to move freely once he lifted a broken wooden beam off Asuna's back. Beyond that was a veritable mountain of collapsed beams floors, walls, tables, bookcases and dozens of other random things found in any house.

"Are you okay?" he asked as the dust finally began to settle.

"I'm fine." she insisted. "We have to hurry and get back out there."

The pair immediately scrambled to their feet and began to pull the nearest debris away, trying to find their way to a door or window.

"That fighting style, did it seems familiar to you?" Kirito asked while tearing into the debris pile.

"Yeah, I wondered if you'd seen it as well, so it's not just me?"

"It looked and fought similar to the style of combat that Heathcliff used back in SAO, it was almost like the could bend the game in the same way too..." Kirito paused for a second as he shifted a particularly heavy beam. "Whoever this guy is, he's got to be an SAO survivor and might even connected to Kayaba in some way."

As they worked together to move another particularly heavy beam, Klein's health dipped down to below thirty percent.

"Hurry, they won't last long on their own!" Asuna shouted and as if in answer to her plea, the next piece she removed, collapsed a section over one of the windows and the could see the outside.

Before they could celebrate however, Liz's HP dropped to zero.

Asuna scrambled out of the window with Kirito right on her heels. They made if out just in time to see The Reaper's scythe fall on Klein. His avatar stayed in place for a few moments before shattering into hundreds of little light fragments.

As The Reaper turned to face them, Kirito spoke quickly. "If this guy really is an SAO survivor, I've got a plan. I can get you an opening, just be sure to use it because you won't get another shot."

"Sounds like you're about to do something reckless."

"You know me."

"That's what I'm talking about."

There was no more time to speak, The Reaper was charging right for them his scythe practically singing in the wind as he ran.

"Follow my lead." Kirito said, and charged to meet The Reaper head on.

Kirito knew that given the situation, it was highly unlikely that they could beat The Reaper in a straight up fight. His party had done a great job whittling down The Reaper's HP, but with both he and Asuna both very low as well, it wasn't looking good. So he had to think outside the box, he had to use a strategy that no SAO survivor would ever expect another SAO survivor to use.

Kirito was a few feet ahead of Asuna so the Reaper aimed his first strike at him, just as Kirito had hoped. The Reaper swung a high diagonal slash at Kirito who raised his swords to block, but at the last moment, Kirito let go of his blades.

The scythe, now undeterred, bit deep into Kirito's left shoulder and his HP dropped like a stone. The moment it hit him, Kirito wrapped his hands along the hilt of the scythe and used all his body weight to drag the weapon down with him. His surprise move did just as it was intended, it put The Reaper off balance just long enough for Asuna to strike. The last thing Kirito saw before his avatar vanished was Asuna's rapier piercing The Reaper's left shoulder.

* * *

By the time Asuna had realized what Kirito's crazy plan was, it was too late to do anything about it. All she could do was strike true and hope that it worked. As Kirito brought down The Reaper's weapon, and consequently his guard, she didn't waist the opportunity. With a lightning flash akin to her namesake Asuna pierced The Reapers left shoulder and used her forward momentum to push her opponent to the ground.

The Reaper's deadly weapon was now free of his grasp, a few feet away on the ground where Kirito's body had been a moment before. The Reapers was now pinned to the ground by Asuna's weight, and his health was down to a mere four percent. She had won. Asuna quickly drew a dagger with her free hand, all it would take to finally end the fight, but just as she was about to use it a voice caused her to freeze.

"Whoa, I yield, I yield!"

The voice that came from The Reaper was so unlike anything she had expected based on her perception of him that she froze out of simple shock. She wasn't even sure what she had really expected, some jaded old gamer, or perhaps some young emo/goth kid? The voice she actually heard was young and vibrant, she figured the owner to be a man in his late teens or early twenties from the sound. One more thing nagged at her, like an itch in the back of her mind that she couldn't quite scratch. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place where she had heard it. Was Kirito right? Was this man an SAO survivor?

"Looks like even after all this time I still can't best The Lightning Flash can I?" he stated with a chuckle.

That settled it, they had to have met before, but when? Then it hit her, she recognised the voice, but it couldn't be whom she thought it was, she had to be wrong.

The Reaper's right arm slowly began moving up and Asuna instantly drew her blade close. "No sudden moves." she ordered.

"Easy there, just taking off the hood." he insisted.

The Reaper pulled back his dark mask to reveal a face she had not seen in years, and one she had never expected to see again.

"It's been a long time Asuna." he said with a slight smile.

"But... that's impossible," she stammered. "You're dead... I saw you die!"

* * *

**Whew, I think that's the longest fight scene I've ever written, hopefully it didn't get too wordy along the way and things flowed well. It was both one of the most fun to wright and maybe the hardest. Building within the story, The Reaper had to both come across strong enough to actually have beaten full guilds, but not so strong that it wasn't believable that Kirito and crew could beat him. Hopefully that came across as well as the reason why they were able to do it when no one else could, without it being directly stated what that was. **

**The next chapter is already well underway so I'm hoping to keep up with the timely updates I've been able to get out lately. Fingers crossed. **

**Anyhow, thank you all once again for reading, and I'll see you next time. :)**

**\- Tawnis**


	7. Fractured Code: Chapter 7

Chapter VII: Ghosts of SAO

Kirito, now re-spawned, walked back into Velma's Diner to find most of his party waiting for him. They all looked up from their table when the bells above the door rang and a wave of worry washed over their faces as they saw him.

"Damn man, he got you too." Klein said.

"Yeah, it was a calculated risk." Kirito replied. "It looked like Asuna was able to get him, but it's hard to be sure as I died right before the end of the fight."

"Well her HP hasn't hit zero yet, so at worst she's still fighting." Argo noted.

"Between the re-spawn time and walking over here, the fight should have been over by now." Just as Kirito finished his sentence, he received a private message from Asuna.

_Kirito, we beat The Reaper and... well let's just say he both is and isn't what we expected. It's too long to write it all out, but you all need to hear what he has to say. He's coming with me to the Diner, don't go anywhere._

"Well it looks like we got him." Kirito's words were followed instantly by a chorus of cheers from his friends.

After a few moments Klein noticed his friend's worried face and stopped cheering. "Okay, what's the catch?" he asked. "You're not exactly wearing your we just beat the bad guy face."

"I don't know Klein, it just seems like things are somehow going to get even more complicated now that... wait, do I really have one of those?"

What started as a little chuckle from Klein quickly turned into a cacophonous fit of laughter from the entire group. Even Kirito couldn't help but chuckle a little bit which lifted his spirits a surprising amount. Only Agent Nishiyama didn't join in the fun, his eyes glued to the character status screens as if he expected to gleam some additional information about the situation from them.

"So what were you actually trying to say?" Liz prompted.

"Oh right. Asuna said that The Reaper wants to talk, and that she's bringing him here."

"Wait what?!" came several exclamations from around the table.

Agent Nishiyama finally looked up from his screen, his brow furrowed. "Do you really think that's wise after all the trouble we just went through to beat him?"

"I mean, that was one of the plans from the start wasn't it?" Kirito asked. "If we can get some information from this guy, it might make our task a whole lot easier."

"You're right of course. Just be careful dealing with this one, we have no idea what his motivations could be, or who's side he's on."

"We'll be careful," Sinon assured him. "But we also need to know what he knows."

With the discussion tabled for the moment, Kirito's party sat together and enjoyed a well deserved victory meal while they waited for Asuna to arrive.

* * *

When Asuna finally made it to Velma's Diner, no one could have guessed that the man she brought with her had been the dreaded Reaper that had been besting all of the top guilds for months. He was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties with short cut dusty brown hair and a rugged face. Without his cloak or scythe equipped, he wore a simple Kevlar vest and his only weapon was a pistol holstered at his side. Even his nameplate was different, now it read _Riordan._

Kirito stared for a moment, he knew that name, and he knew that face. He didn't know it well, but it was familiar enough to bring back memories of SAO. There was a warrior dressed in red and white, wielding a falshion and a heater shield that was not quite as ostentatious as Heathclif's. The memories were coming back now, he could see Riordan standing on the front lines and fighting with the assault team for over a year. When was the last time he had seen him? He was there at the battle against The Skull Reaper, then...

"That's... not possible." Kirito stammered, standing up from his seat in surprise. Now he recalled when the last time he had seen Riordan had been. "You're-"

"Dead?" Riordan interrupted. "Yeah, I already got all that from Asuna. It's kind of a long story, so you may want to sit down for this one."

Kirito stumbled back into his seat as the implications of the situation sank in and looked over his shoulder at his party. The SAO survivors all seemed confused, with Klein looking particularly ashen faced for some reason. As for Sinon and Agent Nishiyama, they seemed more interested than anything else.

Riordan took a seat at their table as he began his explanation while Asuna hovered over his left shoulder rather than seating herself. Everyone else stared intently at him, ignoring the remaining food on their plates.

"Kirito and Asuna are right to some extent, I did in fact lose my life in the death game. I guess you could say I'm a bit of a ghost of SAO."

Everyone's faces seemed even more confused by his statement than anything else and Asuna gave him a soft slug in the back of the shoulder. "I know you love your dramatic flair Rio, but this isn't the time or the place, please speak plainly for once."

Kirito was somehow more shocked by the nickname and Asuna's familiarity with this guy than the possibility of someone surviving SAO after being killed in game. Just how close had she been with this Riordan? It's not like she had talked about him much since their departure from SAO.

"I guess I'll start from the beginning." Riordan said. "I was the primary off-tank in the Knights of the Blood Oath for most of our time in SAO. I worked closely with Asuna for much of that time and occasionally with a few of the other members at this table. Commander Heathcliff, or I guess I should say Kayaba, took a special interest in me and trained me personally in SAO tanking strategy and tactics. Then, during the final battle with The Skull Reaper, I was killed."

As he made that last statement he cast what seemed almost like an involuntary glance towards Klein who instantly looked away. Kirito's head spun even more, he was going to have to unpack whatever the heck that was once this was all over as well.

"I don't remember anything that happened directly after my death, but the next thing I knew I was standing on this weird opaque platform that looked out over all of Aincrad and there next to me was Kayaba himself. He told me that Kirito and Asuna had beaten him, cleared the game, and that it was all over. Naturally my next question was, what did that make me."

"According to Kayaba it took the SAO server some time do delete a player's data after they had been killed, this was apparantly do to the possible use of rare resurrection items as well as the sheer load that was placed on the servers themselves; deleting player data just wasn't a super high priority as the main resources were directed to the living players. However the physical nerve gear was a lot more... responsive and my physical body had already been killed by the equipment and yet somehow, I was still alive. However that left me with nowhere to go; hence a ghost of SAO." he shot a glance back to Asuna at his last statement and she rolled her eyes.

"Given my... unique situation, Kayaba asked something of me." Now everyone was listening even more intently. "SAO was his project, his brainchild, and for whatever reason he didn't want people using the tools he created to, I guess... re-create it. He never explained his reasoning to me, the damn cryptic bastard-"

Asuna coughed pointedly at the last statement.

"Come on, I'm poetic not cryptic and you now it." Riordan shot back. "Anyway, for whatever reason, he didn't want people being killed in any other VRMMO games. So since I was now reduced to code myself, he tasked me with monitoring all the new VRMMO's that would one day be created by his world seed and to protect the players from anyone trying to abuse the system."

"So you're what then, some kind of VR cop?" Sinon asked.

"More like vigilante if you want to use that kind of reference. No one gives me any real authority to do anything, but I mean honestly what else could I do? It's not like I have a lot of options with what I can do with my life, such as it is. So I figure that if I can help a few people out and find some sense of purpose along the way, then why not?"

"Well, I do actually have authority here, and you were standing in our way." Agent Nishiyama stated. "If you weren't blocking our way, we would have been able to get into Innsmouth long ago, and figure out what is going on here, potentially saving lives that have recently been lost."

Riordan leaned heavily on the table, his jovial demeanour quickly evaporating and glared at Agent Nishiyama. "Look here Mr. Bigshot, I did the best I could. If I hadn't stopped most of the players from accessing the zone, who knows how many casualties you'd have on your hands right now. Maybe if you hadn't taken your sweet time in getting here-"

Agent Nishiyama was on his feet in an instant. "Look here you little-"

"Hey!" Asuna interrupted. "We're all on the same side here, lets try to act a little more civilly."

"Are we?" Agent Nishiyama asked. "How do we know that this person even is the Riordan you all remember from SAO? After the servers went down, most of the character data went public, and stories were all over the place. How do we know that someone isn't simply impersonating your friend?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, your story is pretty out there. Why should we believe what you're saying?" Kirito asked. Personally he already believed Riordan's story based on his own interaction with Kayaba, both at the end of SAO and after, but Riordan didn't need to know that.

"If I can prove who I am to one of you, will the rest of you accept it?" he asked.

"Yes." Kirito stated.

"No." Agent Nishiyama insisted. "I'm the one he needs to convince."

"You asked us to help you with this, so you need to trust us," Kirito shot back. "Otherwise, why bring us on board in the first place?"

"Fine." Nishiyama relented.

Riordan turned in his chair to face Asuna who was still standing behind him. "Under most circumstances, I'm not a fan of fun-houses; but the infinities of reflections I see before me are-"

"The most beautiful thing I've ever seen." she finished. Asuna was very quiet for nearly ten seconds with everyone staring at her questioningly, especially Kirito, before she finally said. "It's really him, beyond a shadow of a doubt." Then she punched him in the shoulder again.

"If that was something from SAO, you still can't be sure. Like I said, we don't know all the data that made it out of SAO, anyone could have accessed that information if it's our there." Agent Nishiyama reminded her.

"Not this one." Asuna stated. "When he told me this, Rio and I were had gotten separated from our group in the cavern of reflection on floor fourty-three. Would anyone care to advise our agent friend on what is significant about that location to ease his paranoia."

"The zone blocked PM's, even to other members in the area." Argo confirmed. "That section of the floor was a labyrinthine maze of caverns and mirror like surfaces. We got held up there for a while trying to rescue missing players because the zone blocked any private messaging from leaving your immediate area, isolating you from anyone you weren't within sight of and making you traverse the maze without outside assistance. Any automatic recording devices and player logs wouldn't work either so maps of the zone had to be made by hand and traded from player to player. I would know, I made a fortune on map data on that floor."

"Since we were alone when he said that, there is no way anyone other than Rio and myself could know that quote. It's really him." Asuna stated firmly.

"Okay then, let's assume for the moment that you're correct."

"I am." Asuna stated.

"How do we know he's telling the truth now? How do we know he's not somehow involved with whatever is causing this?" Agent Nishiyama pressed. "I did thorough research on all of you before I approached you to be part of this team, I know next to nothing about this man and I'm just supposed to let him join up with a top secret government operation. Oh, not to mention that he's somehow digital so he could just leak anything we tell him anywhere, it's not like I could throw him in prison for violating a governmental NDA."

"Look, I'm not going to dispute any of that." Riordan said, finally addressing Agent Nishiyama again, though now with a much cooler head. "I get it, trying to beat the tar out of you probably didn't endear me to you very much either but I've been doing everything I can to keep people out of the danger in Innsmouth. The only way I can prove I'm on your side is with my actions. I'm going to keep perusing whomever is behind this with or without your help and like you said, there isn't anything you can do to stop me. But we'll have a much better chance at this if we all work together. What do you say?"

"I'm for it." Asuna stated.

"If Asuna trusts him, then so do I." Liz agreed.

"Still against." Nishiyama noted.

"I think we should give him a chance." Sinon said.

Argo stared at him for quite a while before finally saying. "I abstain."

"I'm with Asuna on this too. What about you Klein?" Kirito asked only to suddenly notice that Klein was nowhere to be seen. "Uh, does anyone know where Klein went?"

"He mumbled something about being right back a minute ago." Liz said.

"Wait, for real?" he asked and everyone turned to look at her as if she should have said something when it happened.

"I guess I'll go take a look for him." Liz said before heading off herself.

"Look I imagine you'll all want to talk this over rather than have a quick vote, I get it. I'll wait outside while you all confer, but don't take too long. If another guild tries to make it to Innsmouth, I'll have to port back and deal with them." With that, Riordan got up form the table and stepped outside.

After the door closed behind him, Agent Nishiyama spoke. "I get that he was once your friend, I do, but even if, and I stress if, we can take everything he says at face value, what do you think years of existing as a virtual being could do to someone? He might not be mentally stable."

"We existed as virtual beings for over two years ourselves, yeah it was hard but we managed, and he has too." Asuna insisted.

Kirito turned to the other dissenting voice at the table to get Argo's thoughts, but she was now gone too. "Seriously, where the heck is everyone going?" he asked to no one in particular.

* * *

Riordan leaned against the brick wall of Velma's Diner looking out into the city and seeing the players milling about in the distance. It had been quite a while since he'd been in Arkham, or seen any players that weren't trying to kill him for that matter. It was a nice change of pace.

Then there was suddenly a blade at his throat. That felt more normal.

"You've gotten your stealth skill quite high is such a short time, even I barely heard you coming." he said without moving a muscle.

Argo's brow furrowed at the comment, he had heard her approach and done nothing? She ignored the idea as him just trying to get under her skin and got a handle on the situation. "No talking unless it's answering my questions." Argo ordered. She pushing the blade just barely into is skin causing a drop of virtual blood to run down the waepon and a tiny dip in his HP.

Riordan looked down at Argo, someone whom he had considered, if not a friend, at least an ally for much of SAO. "Look, there's no need for that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Besides, even if you were to kill me, I'd re-spawn just like you do. I'm kinda immortal like that now."

Argo maintained the threat regardless. "Where's Kayaba? How do I contact him?"

"Wait, what? That's what this is all about?"

"How. Do. I. Contact. Him." She stressed, pressing the blade a little deeper.

"Seriously, ease up on the knife would you, I'd rather not hoof it all the way back here." Riordan said, his HP dropping a little more. "I don't know where Kayaba is and I have no way to contact him."

"Bullshit!" she shouted. "You expect me to believe that he went through all this, saving you, giving you this mission and you don't report to him in some fashion?"

"Honestly, when he set me to this task, it felt more like an afterthought than anything else... like I was just a glitch in his plans and all he wanted to do was sweep me aside or find some marginal use for me. He's not exactly the sentimental type, I wouldn't be surprised if he's forgotten all about me."

"Then why do it?"

"What else was I supposed to do? Be deleted along with SAO? At least this is some semblance of a life. It's not like I don't like living in these worlds sometimes and getting to help people is a purpose worth living for. Don't get me wrong, being stuck here and never getting to see my friends or family again sucks ass, but I'm still alive... everything else is negotiable."

Argo's hand shook slightly, then she withdrew her blade. "Fine... Look, I know that it seems weird for me to ask you a favour after all that, but if he ever does contact you..."

"Why do you need to talk to him anyway?"

"That's my business."

"What's the price?" Riordan asked. "You still have everything for sale, don't you?"

"Not this time." Argo replied sheathing her blade and disappearing back into the Diner.

Riordan rubbed his neck absently as he looked back out into the city. What he said wasn't technically false as far as he knew, but he still played it off a lot cooler that he had worried upon noticing the blade. He did truly believe that he would re-spawn like the rest of them, since he was now part of this game that would make sense but he had never had to test that theory and wasn't keen to try it out.

He looked back at the door Argo had gone in, she seemed a little more unhinged than he remembered and Agent Nishiyama certainly wasn't his biggest fan, perhaps teaming up with them wasn't the best idea. He shook his head to clear his doubts away. He trusted Asuna and Klein to have his back and while he didn't know Kirito very well, Asuna wouldn't have been with him if he wasn't an honourable man. There was only so much he could get done on his own, at the end of the day he needed them as much, if not more so, than they needed him.

* * *

Liz finally found Klein sitting on the ground in the back ally behind the diner. He was up against the wall and had his legs bent and his head resting on his knees. As she looked closer, it almost seemed like he was crying.

"Are... you okay?" she asked.

At the sounds of her voice Klein scrambled up to his feet and wiped his face clean with his sleeve. "Hey, uh, what are you doing out here?" he asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing, you just kinda bailed on us in there."

"Oh, I just uh... needed some air." he replied awkwardly.

"Come on Klein, I think we've known each other long enough that you can tell me what's going on."

Klein looked to the ground, not meeting her gaze. "I... don't really want to talk about it."

Liz sat herself on the ground at Klein's feet and motioned him to sit back down. "Look, whatever this is, it's clearly bothering you. I'm your friend Klein, you know you can talk to me."

Klein sighed and sat down next to her. "I know that Liz, it's just... seeing him again, he really does feel like a ghost from the past."

"Riordan? How so? You guys fought together for a long time didn't you, aren't you glad to see him again?"

"Or course I am." Klein insisted. "It's just..." he took a deep breath. "I'm the one that got him killed."

"Wait, what? Why do you think that?"

"I don't think it, it's what happened. I don't know if Kirito and Asuna even know, they were in the fight too, but it was such chaos I doubt they saw anything. Riordan knows though, he must hate my guts after what happened. I am glad he's not dead, but now he's stuck in this virtual limbo and it's all my fault."

"So... what happened?" Liz prompted.

"It was during the fight with The Skull Reaper on floor seventy-five, the last boss we downed before Kirito cleared the game. How much do you know about what happened during that fight?"

"Not much." Liz admitted. "No one seems really keen to talk about it."

"That's no surprise; the boss was like a giant skeletal centipede that crawled out our your worst nightmare. As for the fight itself, well... to say it was a shit-show is putting it mildly. We'd lost half a dozen players before even making much of a mark on the boss' HP."

"Wow... it was that bad? I had no idea."

"Yeah, it was. It was so chaotic that almost all our tanks were scattered about and out of position; so Kirito, Asuna, and Heathcliff took the lead trying to keep the giant bone scythes it had for front arms busy while the rest of us attacked it. We knew we wouldn't last in a sustained fight with how many casualties we'd already taken and that made people reckless trying to score damage on the boss... I was no exception."

"The creature had a giant, almost rib-like bone structure that went down most of its torso. When it reared up I used the opportunity to get underneath it and drive my Katana into one of it's joints as it came back down. It was a critical hit and did a lot of damage, but the ribcage section wasn't just for show and the talon-like ribs tried to slam shut around me."

"Riordan jumped in to save me in that instant. He pushed me aside and got his shield in front of the first of the ribs, stopping them in their tracks. Problem was, the ribs came at him from every direction, they pierced his armour from behind before he could get away himself. He was a tank so his HP was high enough to take it, albeit barely since he had already taken some damage. but then the boss took off across the room trampling him underfoot. The last I saw of him before his HP hit zero was being tossed like a rag-doll underneath the monster's dozens of jagged legs. Then he was just... gone."

"Oh, Klein..." Liz said as she slipped her fingers into his. "None of us are to blame for any of the deaths that happened in SAO unless we killed them ourselves. Kayaba was the one that trapped us in there and set the rules, he bares the fault for Riordan's death, not you."

"It's easy for you to believe that."

"It's not easy!" she shouted, tears now falling down her own eyes. "You really think it's that easy for me?!"

"Liz, I don't... what do you mean? You never fought on the front lines."

"No I didn't, but I forged the weapons for many of the people who did." she used her free hand to quickly wipe away her own tears. "Do you know how many people came through my doors during our time in Aincrad looking for a new weapon? More than I can count. Do you know how many never came back again? More than I want to count."

She looked deep into Klein's eyes, her own pouring forth all the pain, sorrow, anguish, and frustration she felt in SAO, but also tempered with the resolve to fight through it and carry on.

"Do you know how many nights I spent unable to sleep because I couldn't stop wondering if those people were dead because my weapons had failed them? In the end, I almost closed up shop and just went back to floor one to wait it all out... but I knew in my heart that it would just make things worse. I had to come to terms with the fact that I was doing the best I could and that Kayaba was the only one truly responsible for all the deaths in SAO. You need to understand that too."

She was right, he knew that in his head. Convincing his heart, that was another matter entirely. Even so, he did feel a little better about everything now that she had opened up to him about her own feelings. "Thanks Liz. You're right, I don't think you're responsible for any of those deaths, so I should try to think the same about myself... it's not easy to do, but I'll try."

Only now that he was starting to calm down and return to the present situation did Klein finally realise that Liz was holding his hand. "Uhh... hey Liz," he said looking down at their joined hands.

"Don't make it weird." was all she said.

Normally he'd be totally freaked out by the prospect and start rambling incoherently or trying to act super cool, but none of that jumped into his mind this time. This time, he just felt warm, comfortable, and safe. He slowly tipped his head in her direction aiming for her shoulder, but since she was so much shorter than him he ended up resting his head practically on top of hers.

Without saying anything, she tilted her own head to rest on his shoulder, making things more comfortable.

The pair of them sat together for a long time, happy to have someone else who understood what they had gone through and what they still struggled with every day.

* * *

"I understand your position, but I'm still in charge of this operation and I'm not bringing along some random person who's motives are unclear." Agent Nishiyama insisted.

"Look, you wanted us on this mission because you needed our help. You saw how good he was and we know he is who he says he is. We need all the help we can get on this. We need him." Asuna countered.

"This isn't a democracy. You still seem to be having trouble with the "I'm in charge" concept."

"You're right, you are in charge," Kirito agreed. "But we're also here voluntarily. We're willing to do this on our own if we need to, we've done it before."

"You'd seriously just go off on your own like that to stick up for this guy you haven't seen in over three years?"

Kirito looked over at Asuna who nodded to him. They would need to have a talk about all this later, but for now he wasn't about to abandon her when she'd set her mind to something. "We are." he confirmed.

Agent Nishiyama sat back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you really think you know him well enough to know if he starts acting stage and threatening the mission?"

Kirito and Sinon both turned to Asuna. "It's been years, people change in that amount of time, but yes, I do." she said.

"Okay, but on one condition."

"What's that?"

"This is the last time." he stressed. "I can't have you all doing whatever you feel like in a crisis situation. I'm in charge, you do what I say when I say it. Are we clear?"

The three of them exchanged looks and nodded. In unison the said "we are."

"All right then, I guess I'll go tell him the good news." Agent Nishiyama said and got up from his table.

Sinon looked between Kirito and Asuna sensing something bubbling under the surface. "I'll go too and make sure he doesn't go to hard on Riordan." she said.

As they made their way to the front door, Argo came back inside. Sinon quickly directed her to join them and took her back out of the diner.

"So..." Kirito began awkwardly. "What's the story with you and Riordan? I remember him from a bunch of the boss raids, but I never got the impression that you two were terribly close."

"We used to be." Asuna sat down and sighed. "It's all ancient history now and doesn't really matter, but we're partners so you have the right to know. Honestly I really just didn't want you getting jealous over nothing."

Kirito didn't say anything and quietly sat down across from Asuna.

"After we parted ways and I joined The Knights of the Blood Oath, I spent nearly all of my time with the guild. It wasn't just the front line players either, I worked with the lower level members to level them up, led farming runs for materials and all sorts of other things. I made a lot of friends there, a lot of whom weren't very happy when I just up and vanished to go gallivanting off with you."

"You make that sound like it was a bad thing." Kirito said.

"It wasn't, but from many other people's perspective, it was. I had duties and responsibilities, people who relied in me that I just left twisting in the wind. I didn't just leave for you, I had been starting to get disenfranchised with the whole guild before that, you really just pushed me over the edge. Even so, lots of people saw you as the cause and that's why not many of the KOB members never really bothered to get to know you, even after you joined the guild."

"Yeah, I suppose that's fair, it's not like I made it very easy on them either."

"Being our second best tank and a fellow guild officer, Rio and I worked together a lot. We were a great team as we progressed through the floors, he had an implacable defence, second only to Heathcliff himself... a skill I've grown to respect even more since we found out the truth about Heathcliff. I was our top DPS as you know, so naturally we were paired together a lot."

"Anyhow, we were leading a farming run through the crystalline caverns on floor forty-three. We were on point when the floor gave out beneath us and we were separated from the rest of the group. Since we couldn't contact anyone else and we had fallen into an unmapped section of the zone, we were trapped down there for quite a while. On the second day we found what looked a lot like a hall of mirrors, like you'd see in a fun house and that's what he was taking about."

"Okay, but why that? It seems weird that he would just have the exact moment on the tip of his tongue that would prove he was who he said he was."

"Yeah, he did, but I don't think it was for the same reason I said it was."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you see... when he said that, he wasn't referring to the mirrors themselves, he was referring to the reflection in them... to me. After he said that, he asked me if, assuming we made it out of there alive, I would go out with him."

"Wait, you dated him?!" Kirito exclaimed.

"What? No. I turned him down." Asuna looked deep into Kirito's eyes as if trying to be certain by sheer force of will that he would feel the truth of her words. "There has never been anyone for me but you. Even when we weren't together, I couldn't see myself with anyone else."

Kirito gently took hold of his girlfriends hands and squeezed them gently. He had told her about his time with the Moonlit Black cats, but he had never said that after being apart from her for so long he had started to get over her, even if it was only for a little while. Here she was worried that he was going to be jealous, instead he just felt worse about his own feelings in the past.

"Hey, even if you two had dated in the past I wouldn't care. We're together now and that's all that matters to me." Kirito insisted.

Asuna squeezed his hands back. "Thank you." she said softly before continuing her story.

"He took my rejection very gentlemanly and we stayed friends afterwards, but we were never as close. Then when you and I got together he and I drifted apart even more, to the point where we barely even spoke. Now though, it's like the old Rio is back, the jovial knight who I became friends with in the first place. It feels like he's back from the dead two-fold, both physically... more less, and as the friend who I lost touch with."

"Not that I want to be a buzz-kill here or anything, but doesn't that make you worry about what Agent Nishiyama said? If he's acting a lot like he did at the start of SAO and not the end... could Nishiyama be right about him?"

"No, that's not it." Asuna replied. "We had a good talk on the way back here. He apologized for being a stoic idiot after I turned him down and told me how much he regretted not just staying proper friends with me. I told him that I wished he had done that too and just like that, we fell back into our old friendship as if it had never left. We all lost so much in Aincrad, and I just got to recover a tiny piece of that."

"I'm glad you've got your friend back and after the show he put on in our fight, he's going to be one hell of an addition to the team."

"Come on," Asuna said as she stood back up. "We shouldn't keep the others waiting... Oh that reminds me."

Asuna quickly typed up a PM to Liz. _Did you find Klein, what's going on?_

A few moments later she received a reply back. _Yeah we're fine, on our way back now._

Asuna and Kirito stepped outside to see most the group waiting for them. Argo was sitting on a nearby bench absentmindedly extending and retracting her Katars. Sinon was leaning against a wall next to Agent Nishiyama, but the two weren't speaking. Riordan was standing by himself next to one of the diner's windows looking out into the city.

Kirito slowly approached the former Reaper. "Hey, you good to make this official?" he said, offering Riordan a party invite.

Riordan took a moment and looked between the people gathered around him. "Yeah, I'm in." he said, accepting the request.

Klein and Liz came around the corner of the diner a moment later. "Looks like you got everything sorted out." Liz noted as she saw Riordan's status bar join their party.

"We should get going before any other guilds make an attempt at Innsmouth, I wouldn't want to have to bail halfway through our investigation." Riordan said and headed off in the direction of the train station.

"Five seconds in the party and he's already giving orders." Agent Nishiyama grumbled before following suit.

"It's a valid point and that was where we knew we were going anyway." Sinon said joining everyone else as they all headed out.

Kirito quickly jogged up beside Riordan. He had never really gotten to know the man in SAO, but if Asuna held him in such high regard, the least he could do was try to build some bridges. "Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for helping out with all this."

"Yeah, no problem." he said. They walked silently for a little while before Riordan finally said. "Hey Kirito... are we cool?"

"Huh?"

"I figured that Asuna was filing you in our history back there. I just want you to know that I only think of her as a friend, I have no intention of stepping on your toes."

"It's cool, it was in the past. Besides, I should really be thanking you more than anything."

"Really, what for?"

"When Asuna and I stopped running together, I knew she was skilled enough to handle herself... but I still worried about her. I should thank you for being there to watch her back when I wasn't... when I should have been."

Riordan cracked a small smile at Kirito. "I suppose I could say the same thing to you."

Kirito smiled back and offered out his fist. "Friends?" he asked.

Riordan gently bumped Kirito's fist with his own. "Friends." he replied.

* * *

**Hello everyone, thanks for reading as always. :) I hope this chapter turned out well, there was a lot of backstory and character development to get through without it getting too info dumpy, so I'm hoping that I stuck a good balance here. **

**Little update on my plans for this series going forward; to say it's not going anywhere would be a bit of an understatement. I've had Fractured Code plotted out since before I posted my first chapter, but I knew that while the main conflict would wrap up at the end of this story, there would be leftovers for more. I've finished plotting out a trilogy now, with each story having it's own central story and arc, but with a connecting one that spans all three. So as I said, still a long way to go. At the moment, Fractured Code is all plotted out and planned, the sequel is named and has an outline of the major plot points and progression, and the final one has been named and the general plot and finale ideas set. **

**So yeah, been getting lots done on this. It's got a long way to go, but I'm glad you've all seemed to like it so much so far, it really makes me want to pump out these chapters faster. In that regard, the next chapter's well on it's way so I'd say probably 2-3 weeks until it's up.**

**Thanks again, and I'll see you all next time,**

**-Tawnis.**


	8. Fractured Code: Chapter 8

Chapter VIII Innsmouth:

The driver of the Innsmouth bus wore a ragged plain blue t-shit and pants. In just as shabby a state was an aqua coloured golf cap that may have once been bright, but now was so worn that it was hardly imaginable. Asuna for one was glad that the cap shaded the man's face as it dimmed his pale grey skin and strange bulging watery blue eyes. The driver glared at them unblinkingly as they boarded, thick veins bulging beneath his oddly tinted skin.

As they moved further back on the bus Riordan whispered. "You better get used to that, it's called 'The Innsmouth Look' and most of the people in Innsmouth appear even worse."

Argo and Agent Nishiyama took opposing seats near the middle of the bus, still a healthy distance away from their strange driver. Liz and Klein sat together a few rows further back and looked out towards the spot near the break in the tree's where they had made their stand together. Kirito and Asuna took seats across from them and as they sat, Kirito looked out at the reset old buildings, starting to talk about how he thought the game handled destructible terrain.

Riordan intended to sit at the back of the bus more out of old habits than anything else, as he and his friends had always done that in the real world. It seemed that Sinon had the same idea and he soon found himself sitting next to the young sniper who had propped her rifle up against the corner of the bus and was leaning against it while looking out the window.

After a few minutes of staring and the frayed fabric on the bus seat in front of him and absently checking his magical wards to make sure no one else was approaching the Innsmouth bus stop, he finally decided to break the silence.

"You're a pretty great shot." he said. "Few players in the game can keep a line on me when I'm moving at top speed."

"Thanks, you're not so bad yourself." she replied without looking over at him.

"I'd like to see what you could do with a real sniper rifle."

"Thanks." she said finally looking over at him. "I'm glad somebody finally gets that this isn't a real sniper. Kirito and crew are great and all, but they wouldn't know an M16 from a P90. I suppose I should introduce myself properly, Sinon." she said extending her hand. "I've been trying to get a real sniper since day one, but no luck on drops or quests."

"Riordan, but my friends call me Rio." he said shaking it. "Sniper rifles in ETO are pretty rare, but they are out there. I've seen a few M1903 Springfields, one of the players in the top guild even got his hands on a Mauser Gewehr 98; even I don't know how he got his hands on that one."

"Now that's a sniper. An antique to be sure, but going bolt action over single shot would be a huge upgrade."

"Well, so much of the loot in Innsmouth is still undiscovered, maybe you'll get lucky."

"Yeah, maybe." she replied looking wistfully out the window and thinking about being a true sniper again.

They sat silently for a few minutes before Sinon decided to return the favour and start up the conversation. "So how does a scythe wielding tank know so much about sniper rifles?"

"Well, I played a lot of games before SAO. Whenever I played shooters I'd always play the sniper and in fantasy games, I'd always tank."

"Seems a bit... contradictory."

"On the outside perhaps, but they take some of the same skill sets."

"I've never played a tank so I wouldn't know."

"Well, when you're in a battle, how do you know the right moment to strike?" he asked.

"You read the field. Watch the fight, find the right moment where a single bullet can do the most damage."

"Exactly, it's the same with tanking, though instead of reading the entire field you're just reading the opponent in front of you and the immediate area. Every strike needs to be stopped precisely, then when the moment is right, you strike back."

"Hmm, I guess I never thought of it like that."

"Honestly, if this scythe could also be a customizable high-impact sniper rifle, I'd be all over it...But this isn't that kind of game."

"What kind of sniper is also a scythe?"

Riordan laughed a little to himself. "A bad-ass one? It was just a reference to an old... eh never mind."

"So I meant to ask," Riordan said, ignoring Sinon's quizzical expression. "I don't remember you from SAO and I knew most of the front-line players. Were you in one of the smaller guilds on the lower floors? From what I've seen of your skills so far, I doubt that."

"No, that's not it. I never actually played SAO in it's original form."

"Wait for real? I would never have guessed."

"Why's that?"

Riordan looked Sinon up and down while recalling his brief battle with her in the forest. She had raw talent to be sure, but it was more than that. While she looked totally relaxed in front of him, in battle she was razor sharp. He could see her calculating her moves, placing every shot with precision, fighting as though her very life depended on it and in the end, spitting in the face of death itself.

"I've moved through a lot of games since my time in SAO and in so doing I've fought against more players than I can count. Yet no one has ever had that special... je ne sais quoi, that the SAO survivors have in a fight. Not a single one... except for you."

"Well, I many not have had to fight my way through SAO, but I've stared real death in the face more that I would have liked to."

"Perhaps that is it then... why you fit into their team so naturally I mean. Maybe one day you could tell me about it?"

"Maybe one day." Sinon quietly replied and returned her attention to the passing forest outside the window.

Riordan inwardly cursed himself for his question, it had been way too personal to ask someone he had just met; what in the world made him ask that? Perhaps being so bereft of any real social interaction over the last few years had left his social skills much duller than he had expected. He'd have to find a way to make it up to her somehow. In the meantime though, everyone else was lost in their own conversations so there wasn't much to do but wait until the bus arrived at their destination.

* * *

Riordan stood as he felt the bus go over a familiarly rickety wooden bridge that crossed a small but rapidly rushing river. Around them were nothing but old stumps succumbing to decay as they left the forest and crested a hill that led into Innsmouth itself.

"We're here." he said, causing everyone to look up from what they were doing.

The town of Innsmouth was wide and densely constructed, but even from how far away the bus was it seemed oddly devoid of life. Kirito could see a few cars on the streets below, but after looking closer he noticed that almost all of them were parked. Many of the roofs in the town were in terrible disrepair, some even having collapsed in on themselves. Three tall steeples shot up above the other buildings of the town, but they were in no better shape. One had crumbled to such an extent that it looked like it could topple over at any moment while another had a large black hole in the place where its clock had once been.

"Hey, I've been wondering." Kirito said to no one in particular. "Why is this bus so important? If this really is an open world, why did everyone have to bother with the Innsmouth bus instead of just cutting their way through the forest?"

Riordan was about to answer, but Argo beat him to the punch. "Come on Kii-boy give me a little credit, don't you think I thought of that? The whole forest is filled to the brim with insanely powerful monsters and to add insult to injury, they don't even have loot tables. The guilds have tried cutting their way through instead of taking on our new friend here, but none have made it more than halfway here."

"What about-"

"Water's even worse." she answered before he could ask.

"Oh, okay."

The bus wound it's way down the opposite side of the hill passing through a handful of farms that seemed no better off than the town itself. Aside from their dilapidated state and boarded up widows, the really strange thing was that there were shells and dead fish littered all over the ground around them.

As the street rounded down near the waterfront, the party was assailed but the most repugnant fishy odour any of them had ever experienced. Most of the houses in this area were barely still on their frames and seemed to be all but abandoned along with the ruins of various wharves that jutted out from the shoreline.

"This is ridiculous." Liz moaned. "Please tell me that this game has some sort of odour filter I can turn on."

"Afraid not," Riordan replied. "The smell does get a little better away from the waterfront, but it's something you have to learn to live with while you're in Innsmouth."

"I think my nose would have to be dead not to notice this."

As the bus passed the waterfront district, not nearly soon enough for any of it's passengers, it moved uphill again and into the town proper. The odour began to subside slightly and the houses that now lined both sides of the street looked like they may actually be somewhat habitable. They were still old and shabby to be sure, in fact there seemed to be no trace of the original paint, if there had ever been any at all. Yet rather than the boarded up or non-existent windows they had passed previously, these had drawn curtains and small puffs of smoke rose that from their brick chimneys.

Yet further into the town they finally witnessed real habitation, though only to a small degree. There were a few shops with rickety awnings spread around and a few NPC's here and there that were sullenly milling about the worn cobblestone streets. As Riordan had said, they all had the same strange 'Innsmouth Look' that their bus driver did. With the young ones it was less pronounced and hardly noticeable, but the middle aged people seemed to be loosing much of their hair and the shape of their bodies where all slightly off. Many of them had the same bulging milky eyes and quite a few walked the street with strange limps. There was no sight of any elderly people in the town and Kirito worried at what kind of form, and combat potential, these mutations would equate to in the older population.

"I thought쟈this world was unsettling on the best of days, I can't imagine people wanting to spend their time here as an endgame zone." Kirito mused.

"It's not exactly welcoming, but as the secret corrupted lair of the terrible monsters in this world, it at least feels the part." Riordan noted.

"Guess it's just not my kind of game."

The bus passed over a bridge that for once didn't feel like it was going to fall out from under them. It was iron railed and sturdy, taking them over a deep gorge and a raging river. The water fell off at several locations below them and looking further out, a small factory district below seemed to be powered by the river before it joined to the sea farther out.

As the sound of waterfalls slowly faded away behind them, they pulled up into what appeared to be the town square. The buildings here were in far better shape than the rest of the town, though they still hardly seemed terribly well maintained. At least there was some semblance of normality to it as they spotted a grocery store, a small restaurant, and a fish market that made their stomachs churn after the lingering smell from earlier. The building they stopped in front of was fairly large with faded yellow paint peeling off it on all sides. There hung a small swinging sign on a post that read _Gilman House._

Kirio and Asuna followed Agro and Agent Nishiyama off the bus, happy to put some distance between themselves and their strange driver. They made their way into The Gilman House which they soon realized was a shoddy hotel, though at least there was no one in the lobby with The Innsmouth Look. In fact the only person in sight was a young clerk behind the counter who's nameplate simply read _Gilman Clerk._

"Checking... in?" he clerk trailed off for a moment as he witnessed eight well armed strangers step into his lobby.

"Yes please." Kirito replied.

"That will be two dollars per night, per person."

Kirito paid the man and was handed four room keys. Each of the rooms listed were in the five hundreds, placing the entire party together on the top floor of the dingy establishment.

The lobby walls were made of old stained wood and in the centre of the room was an old oak table with a few leather chairs around it that were practically falling apart at the seams. Argo was, as usual, already poking around the place when a nearby door flew open. An arm belonging to someone he never caught sight of flew out, grabbing hold of the former info broker and pulling her into the adjacent room.

"Argo!" Kirito shouted chasing after her with the rest of the party in hot pursuit.

As they tore into the room ready to combat some kind of monster, they were all drawn to an instant halt bumping into each other. Argo, barely visible in the dim room, was holding out her hands and motioning them to stop. "I'm okay, slow down." she insisted.

"What's going-" Kirito was cut off by the shutting of the door behind them and an NPC stepping just a little bit out of the shadows.

"Do any of you have any sense in your heads at all? Do any of you have even one braincell shared between the lot of you?" The hidden NPC labelled only as Mysterious Informant managed to somehow both whisper and yell furiously at them simultaneously. "What in the world were you all thinking parading yourselves through Innsmouth armed to the teeth, do you have a Goddamned death wish?!"

"Look here we've-"

"I don't care, and neither do the things out there. Whatever you've fought up the this point, it pales in comparison to the horrors lingering just out of sight in this light forsaken hellhole."

Kirito examined what he could see of this NPC even as it continued to berate them. Given the rough outline and the voice, he was fairly confident it was a woman. However any defining features were hidden by the thick shadows in the room and a heavy cloak that was wrapped around her. In a way, it reminded him a little of the first time he had met Asuna.

"We know there is a darkness in here, beyond anything anyone has seen. Regardless of what you say, we're going to find it and deal with it."

The NPC let out a soft humourless laugh. "Think what you will, until experience changes your mind... assuming you survive that long. Though I suppose if you all wish to go out in a blaze of glory, I could point you in the direction of some of the darkest denizens that could use whatever form of justice you manage to dole out before this place consumes you."

"That works for us." Kirito replied evenly, not allowing himself to be intimidated by the ramblings of an NPC.

"Then, with any subtlety that you can manage, make for the Marsh Factory it's just across the bridge on the other side of the gorge. I have it on good authority that the head of the family, Barnabas Marsh, is in possession of a golden coral crown blessed by The Deep Ones themselves. It is his symbol of authority and gives him tremendous weight with the cults in Innsmouth. If you can remove it from his possesstion it, you may cause enough of a chaos that they will be too busy with an internal power struggle to deal with a group of nosey intruders."

With that, the Mysterious Informant melded back into the shadows with a simple parting "Best of luck."

Kirito turned back to the only player with them who had traversed the zone before. "Hey Riordan, you've come here before, is this quest necessary?"

"I've actually always snuck into Innsmouth quietly, so I've never triggered this quest before."

"Sounds like a solid lead." Asuna noted. "We know that not everyone coming to Innsmouth has been affected, perhaps some kind of triggered event like this could lead to something?"

"That's a good point." Agent Nishiyama agreed. "We should go scope out this factory and see what we're dealing with."

"That NPC seems to be... strongly hinting that going out into town as a large group is a bad idea, we should split into pairs until we get there." Kirito said.

"I concur," Agent Nishiyama agreed. "We can also use the opportunity to get a bit of the lay of the land. Argo and I will scale down the side of the ravine and get as close as we can to the building itself without being seen, we'll message you with what we find. Riordan, do you know of any abandoned buildings nearby that you could set Sinon up in?"

"We actually won't need to go anywhere." Riordan replied. "The Gilman house is five stories tall and our rooms happen to be on the top floor. The Marsh refinery is down on the opposite side of the ravine, but it's not too far down since it sits up on the bluff, we should be able to get a good line of fire from up here."

"Sounds good. Then Klein and Liz, you can take the west route while Kirito and Asuna go around the far east side. Once we find a way in, I'll signal you and we can move in."

Everyone quickly nodded in agreement.

"All right then, lets get to it."

* * *

Kirito and Asuna headed out first as they had the longest route to take to their destination. Riordan had drawn them each a simple map of the area from his time in Innsmouth, so they had a general idea of where to go.

As they stepped out into what passed to the centre of town they both did a quick double check to confirm that their weapons were safely concealed beneath the large cloaks they now wore. Given how secretive the people of Innsmouth were, they doubted they would stand out much, and certainly not as much as if they ran around brandishing their weapons.

There were a few NPC's about the square, all of whom had the Innsmouth Look to them, so Kirito and Asuna did their best to keep their distance. They crossed the square and passed the town's office for the Marsh Refining company. Given the nature of their quest to infiltrate the factory across the gorge, they treated this building as enemy territory and gave it a wide berth as well.

"Over there." Asuna nodded subtly to a young man, perhaps only a year or so their junior, who was the first normal person they had seen.

A young man with a black mop top and an old clerk's uniform walked the street with a resigned weariness, unbefitting of his young age. He was heading in the opposite direction though and they soon lost sight of him as he made his way into the First National Grocery Store.

"At least there are a few people in this town that seem normal." Kirito noted. "We should check in the store later in case he's a quest giver or something."

As the two of them walked down the left side of the road heading towards the shore, they looked out over the gorge beside them. Past the rushing river and a little ways back from the edge of the bluff sat their target. The building itself didn't look like anything special at this distance, it was large and rectangular with a few tinted windows high up near the roof. The entire area was surrounded by a high barbed wire fence and, at least from the angle and distance they were are, had no entrance that they could see.

"Don't be too obvious about it." Kirito told Asuna while nudging her with his shoulder. "We don't know how good these NPC's recognition software is. We don't want them to catch on to what were doing if this entire zone really is a giant stealth mission."

"Right." Asuna replied, looking forward to the bridge that crossed over the gorge two blocks down. It was a long wooden one instead of the metal one the bus had crossed, but it looked as though it was still build to handle cars so she wasn't too nervous.

Her nerves were instead coming from the town itself and what it represented. They were in the belly of the beast now, the source of the madness that had been afflicting players and they still knew so little about what they were up against. "So... how do you think it's happening?" she asked. "This thing that's affecting people's minds I mean."

"I've been thinking about that since this whole mess started and honestly I'm still not sure, but I've got part of a theory at least. As you know, unlike the Nerve Gear, the Amusphere doesn't do anything that can cause a person to die. Also, from what Agent Nishiyama said when we met him, ETO's removal of some of the stress related safety features is likely related. That being said, it wouldn't be enough to do something like this on its own, there has to be some kind of outside force causing this."

"But people aren't just switches," Asuna remarked. "You can't just flip on the crazy."

Kirito looked over the edge as the crossed the wooden bridge, wearily keeping an eye on the raging water below while he spoke. "I'm still learning a lot about how the VR systems interface with the users brain, but it makes sense that it has to be related to that in some way. The curious thing though is that not everyone who has come to Innsmouth has been affected. I wonder if whatever is behind this is choosing who to affect, or if it's only capable of affecting certain people by nature or something... genetics maybe, I'm not sure? Really, it's all just speculation until we learn more about what's going on."

"Hopefully we'll manage a lead on it soon, I'm quite sick of this eerie place already."

After crossing the bridge, they now stood on the east side of the Marsh factory. From what they could see at a glance, past the barbed wire fences and entrance gate with tinted windows, there was a side door to the facility guarded by another NPC.

"I'll let them know we're in position." Asuna said, getting back on track.

_We're just about in position, looking for a spot to lie low. _Asuna typed.

Within a few seconds she got a reply from Klein. _We're in position as well, waiting for the go ahead._

Lastly was Argo's reply._Sounds good, we're moving to scale the cliff-side now._

Asuna looked around their immediate area, as Kirito had said, they didn't want to be too obvious about scoping the place out. Across the street from the Marsh Factory she spotted a warn out sign that read _Hagatha's Curiositie Shoppe. _The place looked decrepit like the all the buildings around it, but there was something subtly different about it, like it didn't quite belong with the rest of Innsmouth, and given the nature of the town itself, that was a welcome difference.

"How about in there?" She asked Kirito. "There's a large window in the front that we can keep an eye on the factory."

"Sounds good to me." he said and the pair made their way over to the small storefront.

A small bell jingled as they opened the creaky front door to reveal row upon row of shelves crammed full of strange items. "I'll keep an eye on the window if you want to have a look around." Kirito said.

"Okay, I'll let you know what I find." she replied and set about inspecting the strange shop.

The air in the dimly lit shop was thick and musty, especially as she made her way through the dusty old oak shelves. One of the shelves had a wide variety of plants and powdered herbs on it that drew her eye. As she inspected them, the item names and prices displayed on her HUD but nothing else about the items showed up. They were all quite expensive and she had no idea what any of them were for.

The shelf behind her was filled with jars of murky liquid that mostly hid whatever contents were inside. These were even more expensive than the herbs and she had no illusions of buying them just to see what they did; perhaps later Argo might have an idea on what they could be used for.

"Help you find something dearie?" The creaking voice of an old woman nearly caused Asuna to jump out of her skin.

She spun around, hand on the hilt of her rapier to see a hunched old woman in dark brown robes with a cowl that covered her face. Her appearance made her look like one of the inhabitants of Innsmouth, however her demeanour already seemed anything but. Above her head floated the name _Hagatha, Weird Shopkeeper. _

"Oh, sorry," Asuna replied. "I was just browsing."

"Not from around here are you?"

"That easy to tell?" Asuna asked. "What's with this town anyway?"

"That is a very long and morose tale dearie, suffice to say that the progeny of Obed Marsh are the stuff of nightmares for regular folk... though I suspect you and your companions are far from regular folk."

"I suppose you could say that."

Hagatha crooked her head to the side as she looked at Asuna. Despite not being able to see her face, Asuna couldn't help but be reminded of an owl. In fact upon closer inspection, the only thing Asuna could discern of her face was the faintest shadow of a hooked nose in the middle, adding even more to her owl-like visage.

"When I look at you, I can tell you have peered beyond the veil." Hagatha crooked her head to the other side as she spoke. "You have the potential to right the wrongs of this horrid place. If you will realize that potential though, that is the question now isn't it?"

Asuna looked back at the window and Kirito keeping watch on the Marsh Factory across the street. She supposed that was one way to put what they were doing. They still had so little idea of exactly what they were up against and she couldn't help but feel pensive about the whole situation.

"There's still so much we don't know..." she whispered to herself.

"Ah, now that I can help with Dearie." Hagatha said.

"Wait, what?"

Hagatha reached into her robes and pulled out a small monocle. It looked rather plain upon inspection, almost as if whoever had worked on the art assets for it had thrown it together at the last minute with the most generic form and textures. "Please take this dearie. In a world fraught with horrible deception, it will illuminate your way when your doubt holds sway."

"Thank you." Asuna said accepting the item into her inventory. She brought up the status window to see what it was that she had acquired and it simply read _?_

"There is one thing that I would ask if you don't mind dearie." Hagatha looked to the window past Kirito. "The magical wards that guard my home from the horrors of this place are fading and I am no longer fit to venture out to replenish them. In the Marsh Factory across the street rests a golden coral crown imbued with ancient and terrible magic. I would like to extract the power from the vile thing and use it to enhance my wards. Can you please retrieve it for me?"

"Of course I-"

"Asuna, Argo's in trouble, we've got to move!" Kirito shouted over his shoulder.

"Right behind you." she replied.

As she turned and ran off towards Kirito, she waved a quick goodbye to Hagatha. Asuna headed off in such a hurry that she never noticed there had not been any quest to accept in relation to the old woman's request.

* * *

**Hey everyone, thanks for reading as always.. So this chapter was originally going to have a lot more stuff in it, but as I was getting in around the 8000 word mark and wasn't even halfway done, I realised not only was it going to be way too long but also that it wouldn't be finished in any amount of reasonable time, so I've split the part off into it's own chapter to post early. Given how long the "next" chapter is still turning out to be, I may end up splitting it again before I'm done to make sure I'm not taking too long to put up more content. **

**I'm curious what everyone thinks of Riordan now that you've had a couple chapters to get to know him. I'm always a little nervous bringing an OC into a story as a primary character and meshing them with the rest of the cast so I hope that's all going smoothly. **

**I've been trying to give each of the cast their time in the spotlight as well, to not keep anyone overshadowed. Liz and Klein got some of theirs last chapter, Argo had a big section earlier in the original draft, but that sadly got cut, she still got some time last chapter and we'll be seeing a bit more of her next chapter. As for Sinon, she was going to take the spotlight after the original version of this chapter for a bit... but now that's a few chapters from now. Don't worry Sinon fans she'll get her time to shine soon enough.**

**That's it for now, I hope you all enjoyed it and I'll see you all next chapter. **

**\- Tawnis**


	9. Fractured Code: Chapter 9

Chapter IX The Marsh Factory:

Argo quickly grabbed one handhold after another, with he feet following suit. Between her natural talent at climbing and the reduced weight effect she had, she practically flew across the side of the bluff. Below her Agent Nishiyama, who was normal size and had normal gear, was making a solid effort at it but couldn't keep pace with the former info broker. Under normal circumstances climbing a damp cliff-side would be treacherous to say the least, but since they had merely moved along the top to avoid detection, they weren't anywhere near most of the treacherous sections.

Before long, she crested the edge of the bluff near the factory and slid up into the concealment of the tall grass. The dirt below her feet was moist but it didn't seem to be from the spray of the river below. While she waited for her companion, she squatted on her feet to avoid getting dirty. It took Agent Nishiyama nearly a minute to catch up to her, but one she had helped him up over the edge, they had both cleared the first part of their reconnaissance without much trouble.

Given the much smaller size of her Avatar, Argo was able to crouch low and still keep her head concealed around the top of the plants. However for Agent Nishiyama who was much taller, he had to crawl through the muck on the ground to stay hidden.

As she silently stalked through the reeds, moving slowly so her employer could keep up, Argo couldn't help wondering how long she was going to be stuck with the him. It wasn't like she had much of a choice in the grand scheme of things; if what Riordan said was true, and she believed it was, Agent Nishiyama was still her best lead in finding whatever remained of Akihiko Kayaba.

When they came upon the barbed wire fence at the edge of the reeds Argo held up her fist, signalling Agent Nishiyama to stop. There was a patrol of two NPC's coming around the side of the building and nothing but dying grass between the fence and the factory itself. Argo and Agent Nishiyama quietly sat tight, using their cover to stay hidden while the threat walked by.

While they passed, Argo used the Rouge's class skill, Evaluate, to get an idea of what they were dealing with. She focused on the patrol and in a few seconds, their physical stats displayed on her HUD. They had very high HP and Strength values, way above what they had fought so far in Arkham. One of them carried a bolt action Lee-Enfield rifle while the other had a hefty butcher's cleaver strapped to his side.

They hadn't yet decided if they were going to have to take out the guards first or if they might be able to sneak by them completely and destroy the crown without having to fight anyone. For now she let them pass and pulled out a pair of wire cutters to get through the fence.

Once she had finished cutting a significant hole in the fence, she quickly typed up a message to the other teams. _In position, moving in now. __Let me know if you see that patrol coming back this way._

As she took a step forward, Agent Nishiyama grabbed her shoulder. She tuned back to look at see him holding up a single finger. Quietly, he whispered "Illtha, r'guthia, saqai." His sanity meter dipped slightly and Argo noticed a buff appear on her HUD, _Sound emitted reduced by 50%_. She offered him a quick nod of thanks and headed through the hole.

With Agent Nishiyama close behind her, Argo sprinted over to the brick factory wall and looked up at the small tinted window about twenty feet above her head. "Gimme a lift boss?" she whispered.

Agent Nishiyama cupped his hands together and nodded.

Argo took a step back, then jumped up into his cupped hands and was tossed up into the air. Normally, Nishiyama's strength attribute wouldn't have been high enough to toss someone that far, but with Argo's already small stature on top of her weight reducing item, she was just able to get her fingers hooked onto the lip under the window.

Once she was sure she wasn't going to fall, she withdrew the Katar that was concealed in beneath her right sleeve and used it to slowly pry the window open. After struggling with it for a few seconds, she managed to jimmy it ajar. Taking a moment to quickly re-adjust her grip, she then pulled the window open the rest of the way and slunk inside.

The window resided at the end of an overhead walkway made of old steel five feet across that stretched the length of the facility and branched off to connect to several other small windows at other points. There was only a small handrail separating her from a long fall, and more importantly, the only thing separating her from anyone below from seeing her.

Argo dropped to the walkway, landing on all fours with the stealth of a feline. As she carefully looked down over the edge, she realized that even with the factory shut down for the day, there were still quite a few NPC's inside. The facility itself was stacked with hundreds of sealed wooden crates and all of them looking heavily waterlogged. A few NPC's mulled about inside using old style forklifts to arrange the various crates about the facility, their nameplates read _Cultist Labourer_. Meanwhile there were a pair of massive heavyset NPC's that seemed to be monitoring the others, but Argo couldn't get a read on their nameplates from where she was.

Quietly, Argo activated her message screen and sent a quick update to her party. _Made it inside undetected, will scout around for a few minutes. _

While keeping an eye on the NPC's below to make sure none were looking in her direction, Argo dropped down onto one of the pile of crates that had been stacked high into the air. With precision derived from years of stealth and subterfuge, Argo silently made her way down the stacks of crates and into a secluded corner of the facility.

She looked about all the cases and crates for anything of note. They seemed to all be sealed, but eventually she was able to find one that was slightly ajar. "Alright, let's see what we're dealing with." she whispered to herself as she pulled a crowbar out of her inventory. As quietly as she could manage, Argo slowly pried the top of the crate open and looked inside.

The thing that was in the crate, Argo couldn't put into words. It filled the entire crate, yet somehow she could see through it to the bottom as if it molded and bent itself around her gaze as to not be seen directly. The sheer amount of overlapping layers that melted suddenly into each other or abruptly ceased to exist without rhyme or reason forced her gaze to slide off the incomprehensible thing. Her vision swam as she instinctively tried to re-focus, which only made the affect worse, spinning round and round in a perpetual whirlpool of mind numbing confusion.

She tried to look at the items on her HUD to orient herself but they shifted and moved away from her gaze, like an object physically on the eye when someone tried to look at it. She stumbled back as the intense vertigo overcame her, crashing into a precariously stacked barrel and tipping it over, scattering its strange contents with a loud crash.

Her bleary vision and jumbled senses were in such a haze that she didn't even notice the towering NPC thundering towards her.

* * *

Kirito leaned casually against a wall next to a small window at the front of the strange shop they had found themselves in. Asuna was busy chatting up the strange shopkeeper who had put down roots here of all places, while he kept and eye on the Marsh Factory.

The factory itself looked unassuming from the outside, except for the fact that it was in slightly better repair than the rest of the town. It looked old and worn to be certain, yet the walls all still seemed to be rather sturdy, and the patrolling guards would certainly add to the complication on breaking in. The one patrol he had seen so far had made their way around the back of the facility about a minute earlier, so Kirito was passively watching the time until he saw them make their rounds again.

On their side of the factory, there was a heavy chain linked fence topped with barbed wire that surrounded the facility. There was a small gate in the fence that led to a side door, however next to the gate was a guard post with tinted windows and next to the door itself was a guard standing stock still, presumably watching the nearby area. He wasn't armed as far as Kirito could tell, but he had learned quickly that in ETO, few things were as they appeared.

A message from Argo pooped up on his HUD as he watched. _Made it inside undetected, will scout around for a few minutes._

He knew well enough that Argo was more than capable of handling herself in regards to scouting and reconnaissance. Even so, he had never been at ease when she went scouting on her own back in SAO, and the same still held true now. Perhaps it wasn't Argo's scouting he had a problem with, but more the fact that he hated sitting still while other people took all the risks.

As Kirito pondered the thought, Argo's sanity meter took a massive blow dropping to almost thirty percent. He had no way of knowing what had happened, but even if she wasn't in a fight, the effect on her UI that the sanity drop would have would make stealth next to impossible. If she was killed she'd have to make the long trek all the way back to Innsmouth... assuming that re-spawning would be the only repercussion of dying in Innsmouth.

"Argo's in trouble, we've got to move!" Kirito shouted over his shoulder.

"Right behind you." Asuna replied instantly.

Kirito broke out of the shop's front door like a shot, making straight for the chain linked gate. The time for stealth was gone and his drab cloak was now back in his inventory. His black leather duster flapped behind him from both his speed and the sea's breeze as he charged headfirst towards the Marsh Factory with Asuna close behind him.

Despite charging the factory itself, nothing actually seemed to bother with Kirito until he cut the padlock from gate and kicked it in. As soon as he stepped foot on the actual grounds of the facility, the door to the guard post flew open with a resounding crash. The NPC that lumbered out was a mountain of a man but was shrouded mostly in a large cloak that shielded both his face and most of his body from view. His nameplate simply read _Strange Guard. _The guard wasn't armed conventionally, but the long piece of rusty re-bar that rested upon his shoulder looked lethal enough.

Kirito looked to the door ahead, then to the guard coming at him from the side. He wanted to make a break for the facility and find Argo, but her HP still had yet to drop and bringing a train of mobs down around her was the last thing they needed right now. With one eye constantly checking her status bar, he readied his sword and redirected his charge towards the strange guard.

The guard was terribly fast for his oversized frame and was on Kirito in seconds, punishing him relentlessly for not considering him an imminent threat. Two quick swipes were barely turned aside by hasty parries from Kirito, but a third overhead attack drove Kirito into the muck when he instinctively tried to block in by crossing his swords overhead.

Kirito hit the muck hard, loosing only a small amount of health, but a great deal of mobility. So fast that his eyes could barely track the movement, the guard thrust the re-bar down, trying to impale him in the ground. It was instinct alone that saved him, honed form years of fighting for his life, Kirito rolled out of the way and the re-bar hit the mud with a solid _shlunk._ As he came out of the roll, Kirito swiped up at the guard with one of his swords, but his foe had already reclaimed his weapon from the ground and easily tuned the blow aside.

His attack was not in vain however as Asuna followed up at the same moment the guard blocked Kirito's strike. Her rapier flashed forward, piercing the mob's chest and driving it back. In rapid succession, she withdrew it and struck three more times before hastily falling back to cover Kirito. The strange guard's health dropped to just below half, but more alarmingly, the tattered cloak it bore gave way to the punishment of Asuna's blows and fluttered away in the ocean breeze.

As Kirito pulled himself up from the mud, he bore witness to one of the true inhabitants of this zone for the first time. The being, for it could no longer be called a man, was a greyish scaly fish-like monstrosity with bulging black and yellow eyes that stared unblinking at it's prey. It's webbed hands gripped the re-bar with renewed purpose as it gnashed shark-like teeth at them. Kirito and Asuna's sanity metres took a heavy dip at the sight of the abomination, but they still managed to retain their focus.

The creature, who's nameplate now read _Deep One Hybrid,_ charged Asuna, swinging it's re-bar wildly and emitting a cacophonous sound in a guttural croaking voice. She dodged back, then side to side, using her trademark speed to stay just ahead of the rabid bestial swings.

Kirito tried to use the monster's focus on Asuna to press the attack, but a loud crack sent him spinning again from an impact to his shoulder and dropped his health by nearly twenty percent. He looked up quickly to see the guard by the door reloading his rifle and taking aim again.

"Keep that thing between us and the shooter!" Kirito shouted, scrambling over to Asuna to try and take his own advise.

"He's not that easy to direct!" she retorted, barely avoiding another wild slash.

"I've got the shooter under control!" Agent Nishiyama yelled.

Kirito glanced back to the shooter to see Agent Nishiyama standing next to him with his arm outstretched, channelling some sort of control spell. Nishiyama's sanity was depleting at a slow but constant pace, however as a result the NPC didn't seem to be able to take any kind of action.

Asuna was still on the back foot, barely keeping the hybrid's attacks at bay and unable to make any kind of counter herself. Kirito sprung to her aid, feinting an attack at the abomination's left side.

It took the bait, and swung at him with frightening speed. He had anticipated the blow however and this time was able to block it far more effectively than the last; he gave a little ground, but was able to stand firm against the attack. That was all the opportunity that Asuna needed. She thrust into the opening, piercing the creatures chest and spilling some of its entrails onto the ground at its feet.

The creature dropped to less than ten percent health and received a bleeding debuff that would slowly tick away the remaining hit points. At the sight of that, Kirito planned to play defensive and run out the clock on its HP, however that's when the monster went even more wild. Each of it's appendages flailed about, as if they had minds of their own and its shark like teeth clamped down onto Asuna's arm, which was still withdrawing from her strike. Pulling her from her feet with ease, the hybrid lifted her into the air and began to swing her about like a dog with a chew toy.

Kirito was on the move even before Asuna began to scream. Heedless of the flailing attacks chipping away at his HP, he launched himself at the monster and drove his sword clean through the creatures neck. Its jaw went slack in an instant, releasing Asuna who flew a few feet and tumbled into a heap before it dropped to a dead in the mud itself.

Asuna was clutching her mangled arm and smiling woefully at Kirito as he came to her aid. "Really glad we're not in the underworld right now, can't imagine what this would be like without the pain suppression system." she said.

Asuna had received both a broken arm and bleeding debuff from the mauling she received, Kirito could deal with the latter, but the former was another matter. As he used the first aid skill he had acquired to quickly dress and wrap her arm, he replied. "I'll bet. Are you going to be okay?"

"I might be a little on the slower side now, but I'll manage." she said, taking up her rapier in her off hand. "We should hurry."

Kirito suddenly realized that in the chaos of battle, he'd forgotten all about Argo. Quickly he checked their party status screen to find that she had just taken some damage but was still alive. "Right, let's go." he replied.

The pair quickly made their way up to the door to find Agent Nishiyama finishing off the guard there and ushering them forward. "You both took a beating out there," he said by way of greeting. "Here, let me help."

Agent Nishiyama uttered a few words in the strange language of the game and both of their health meters rose back to near full. Asuna's broken arm debuff also began to flash signalling that it was on the mend and would be removed in a few minutes. The price was a solid chunk of Nishiyama's sanity bar however. While he did have a higher sanity meter than anyone else in the party, Kirito noted that it would soon dip into the area where it would start affecting his character control. It was a high price to pay, but Asuna was their highest DPS player, and they couldn't risk her being crippled for the fights ahead.

"Thanks," Asuna said. "Now let's get in there and find Argo."

* * *

Sinon and Riordan sat patiently in front of a window in the top floor of the Gilman House and watched as Agent Nishiyama tossed Argo up to a window leading into the Marsh Factory. They had an excellent view of both the west and south sides of the factory from their vantage point and although the distance was far, Sinon was confident in her accuracy.

The patrol that Argo and Agent Nishiyama had let pass by was taking its time on the west side of the factory. While Sinon kept her rifle trained on them, Riordan sent a quick message to Liz and Klein advising them that that coast wasn't clear and to keep their distance.

Another message "_Made it inside undetected, will scout around for a few minutes."_ appeared on their HUD's a few moments later from Argo.

Sinon didn't take her eyes off the patrol. There wasn't anything she would be able to do to assist Argo even if she got into trouble. Her job was to help her party get inside the factory if stealth was no longer an option, and to provide cover for a retreat if things went south. Those tasks consumed her entire attention.

As her spotter, Riordan focused on everything else. He wordlessly watched the surrounding area to make sure there was no threat to Sinon's task, keeping his scythe within reach just in case. He also looked out for other patrols that might complicate the mission and kept one eye on each of the teams he could see in case they ran into unexpected trouble.

Agent Nishiyama had retreated back to the tall grass and taken cover there in case another patrol came around. Liz and Klein had made their way into a stretch of trees and shrubs that ran along the back of a fence separating one of Innsmouth's dilapidated houses from the grounds of the Marsh Factory. They were well covered and waiting, so much so that Riordan could barely make out a trace of them, even from his vantage point and knowing where to look.

Suddenly, Riordan saw Argo's sanity meter take a massive hit, dropping to almost thirty percent. There was nothing he could do from his spot though so he could only keep an eye on her meter. Her health hadn't dropped in the following seconds though, so Riordan assumed she had found some kind of trap or eldritch object that triggered the sanity loss. Even so, it would leave her in a state that would make stealthily navigating the factory next to impossible.

A message then popped up from Asuna. _"We're moving in."_ Was all it said.

Agent Nishiyama was on the move a moment later, followed my a quick message. _"Covering Asuna and Kirito."_

"_We're going too."_ Klein messaged a moment later.

"So much for stealth." Sinon whispered while barely moving a muscle.

From their perch they could see Klein and Liz break from cover and make their way towards the factory. A single guard was positioned at the door on their side of the facility, but Sinon already had a line on him.

Sinon peered down at the wind gauge she had set up next to where she sat and adjusted her aim accordingly. The guard's head turned towards what she assumed was Klein and Liz, there was no more time to waste. Exhaling slowly, she pulled the trigger and a fraction of a second later saw the guard's head explode in a shower of gore. For a split second as the body fell, Sinon could have sworn she saw a tentacle writhing from the stump of its neck and her sanity meter dropped a little in response.

As Klein and Liz neared the factory's door, the patrol that had since passed came back around from the front of the building and headed straight for them. At the same moment Sinon could hear several sets of footsteps loudly clamouring down the hallway towards their room.

In her peripheral vision, Sinon saw Riordan take up his scythe. "Don't worry about them." he said.

She had already set about reloading her rifle with expert efficiency, even so, the patrol was halfway to Liz and Klein by the time she was ready to fire again. Sinon checked her wind gauge again, barely any chance, and sighted on the target. A smooth exhalation, a squeezed trigger, and another puff of gore marked the second target eliminated.

Loud clashing and strange noises assaulted her ears as she began to reload once more. She could hear metal clashing, then rending flesh, and bodies hitting the floor. At first in the hallway outside, then in the room she was in. That wasn't her fight though, she had to trust Riordan to have her back so she could have everyone else's.

She lined up the next shot, same as before. Klein and Liz had already made their way into the facility, but the remaining guard was hot on their trail. The guard was opening the door to the facility when Sinon drew a line on him, it was now or never. Just as she moved her finger to pull the trigger, a massive crash shook the room. Her shot went slightly off, striking her target in the right shoulder rather than the head. It reeled from the blow, but then quickly bolted inside in pursuit of its original prey.

"_One got past me."_ Sinon quickly typed before turning around.

Riordan fought like a man possessed, attacking and blocking with his scythe so quickly that her eyes could barely follow the movements. Sinon was sincerely glad that she was no longer his target. Over half a dozen strange monster corpses littered the floor of their room with more in the hallway outside. Even so, more continued to pour into their room with increasing determination.

In one smooth practised motion, Sinon drew her rifle upon the mob of creatures trying to push their way in and began to pick off any that got past Riordan's guard.

* * *

Argo reached out her left hand to try and steady herself on a nearby crate but missed it entirely and ended up falling to the floor instead. She crashed into the side of the crate with an audible thump and inwardly cursed herself. With her sanity meter near depleted, Argo could barely tell up from down, let alone stealthily reconnoitre a dangerous location.

Thunderous foot steps echoed through the factory. She could tell that they were getting closer, but the crates were all stacked so high and in no logical pattern that she couldn't get a sense of where they were coming from. She pulled herself tight to the crate he had crashed into and made her already small frame even smaller, then she closed her eyes and listened.

Once she did, her HUD vanished alongside all the distorted images that accompanied it; finally the sickening feeling of vertigo slowly dissipated. It wasn't the ideal situation, but she would take fighting blind over not being able to fight at all.

As the foot steps drew closer, the strangeness of them finally registered in her conscious mind. They didn't thunder like heavy footfalls, though there was clearly great weight behind them. Instead they sounded like someone stepping in a deep mud puddle then quickly pulling their foot out. The stomp/slurps drew ever closer and finally Argo could pick up a definite direction, the were coming from behind on her left side.

Slowly, as quietly as she could manage, Argo raised herself to a crouch and began to move to her right. She kept her hand on the side of the crate, guiding herself and drawing a virtual map of the area as she moved. The possibility of turning a corner and someone seeing her almost gave her pause, but the thought of those foot steeps catching up to her, urged her on.

Soon, Argo reached the end of a large crate and there were no more within arms reach. She tried to recall what she had seen of the building's layout when she was overhead but after how distorted her world had become, she wasn't even sure exactly where she was in the partial layout she recalled. The footfalls behind her drew ever closer so she took a deep breath, removed her hand from the crate and cautiously dashed forward, hand outstretched to find anything to take cover behind.

It took longer than she felt comfortable with to reach another crate but as soon as her outstretched hand found one, she slunk in tight to it and crouched down again. Listening intently, Agro quickly realized that she could no longer hear the disturbing footfalls that had been following her. She inwardly sighed with relief, she must have given it the slip. _Unless..._

As soon as the thought crossed Argo's mind, she dove to the side rolling into another crate with a small thud. Her intuition was proven right as a loud crash resonated through the factory from where she had been a moment before.

She quickly scrambled to her feet and began to run. She couldn't see her target to evade so she zigged and zagged as best she could keeping both arms outstretched to give her a moments notice before she ran into something. It worked for a handful of seconds and another crash, but eventually her luck ran out.

Something struck her in the side lifting her off the ground and throwing her into another crate with a loud crash. She couldn't see her health anymore, let alone her buff and debuff icons, but as soon as she tried to move she felt sluggish, some effect must have been placed on her. She tried again, pushing herself to move faster, but knew in her crippled state there was no way she could evade what was coming for her.

She inwardly cursed herself. Now she was going to re-spawn all the way back in Ipswich and delay the entire investigation. Even as she tried her best to delay the inevitable, she mentally prepared herself for the killing blow that was about to be struck.

* * *

"_One got past me."_ As soon as Klein registered the words scrolling across his HUD, he spun around.

He and Liz had just made it into the dingy factory when Sinon's warning found them. There were crates stacked everywhere, so high that they blocked line of sight to much of the factory proper; they couldn't afford to press forward if something was coming after them from behind.

The NPC came through the door a moment later, it's nameplate read _Strange Guard_. It lumbered through with a giant cloak that covered it's entire form, though it did have a hole in its cloak on his right shoulder, presumably Sinon's work. After it came through the door, it just stood there as it it was trying to stare them down.

"We don't have time for this." Klein said as he readied Katana and charged.

"Wait!" Liz shouted, and took off after him. "Igthai, hashim, qavi." As she spoke the words her shield arm erupted with hardened scales that grew quickly over her buckler and spread out to nearly twice the size of her shield.

The Strange Guard shifted beneath it's robes, but Klein was too focused on claiming a swift victory to notice. Liz shoved him from behind causing him to sprawl to the floor, fortunately not coming down on his blade at an awkward angle. A moment later a massive tentacle, with a stinger at the end covered in dozens of small spines that dripped a strange fluid, shot out from underneath the guard's robe. Quickly Liz braced herself and took the blow directly in the centre of her enhanced shield. Bits of chitin sprayed from the impact, but neither the shield not the stinger gave way.

Klein was back on his feet in a moment, Katana in hand, and brought it down on the extended tentacle severing it just before the stinger. The deadly appendage dropped to the floor, twitching a few times before laying still while it's owner reeled back hissing madly in a guttural tone. The creature's cloak came loose as it writhed in pain and the pair finally got a good look at their foe.

The creature was rotund and bloated, like someone had pumped them too full of air, yet their footfalls were heavy as though they still had great weight behind their stride. Their severed tentacle thrashed about wildly spilling dark fluid all across the floor while a second tentacle with another stinger pulled back, like a snake coiled and ready to strike. It's remaining health was just a little over fifty percent and its nameplate had also shifted to _Deep One Hybrid_.

"Together this time?" Liz asked.

"Right." Klein replied.

Liz took the lead, shield at the ready, charging down the hybrid. Klein was right behind her, sword prepped and waiting for an opening.

The creature shot it's tentacle forward just as they had expected and Liz met it head on with another crunching echo of grinding chitin. She deflected the blow off to the side and Klein moved in to slash it again, but the hybrid was ready for it this time and pulled back on it's tentacle with incredible speed. Their momentum was still carrying them forward however and within moments, they were right on top of their target.

Klein leaped into the air bringing his Katana down hard to strike the monster in the head. Its tentacle was out of position from the way the creature pulled it back, but as soon as Klein thought he had an easy kill, two claw like appendages swung out from behind the monster and blocked Klein's blow in a cross guard or armoured scales. His momentum carried him up and over his target, with the monsters new appendages going up an over as well to keep the blade at bay, but now there was nothing guarding the monster's front anymore.

Liz surged forward bringing her mace to bear and connecting cleanly with the monster's torso. The creature reeled from the blow, it's multiple limbs scrambling to find purchase to steady itself. It never got the chance as Klein's Katana came down directly on the monster's neck, decapitating it in a single stroke.

Barely a moment after the creature's body hit the floor, a loud crash resonated through the warehouse. Both of their heads shot up, directed towards the sound of the noise. "Argo." the said in unison.

Klein and Liz took off through the warehouse, zipping around corners trying to find their lost companion, all the while keeping their eyes peeled for any mobs that they might be inadvertently drawing aggro on. As they rounded another bend still without seeing any enemies, Argo's HP took a solid hit followed by another loud crash nearby. Quickly re-routing to where the sound had come from, Klein and Liz turned one last corner and finally found their missing scout.

Argo was in a heap on the floor struggling to rise while another hybrid stood over her wielding a massive sledgehammer. This creature was much larger than the one they had already defeated, it's tag reading _Hybrid Brute._ It had a heavily hunched back, but even so, stood well over seven feet tall. It's feet, if they could even be called that, splayed open into a dozen short tentacles at the bottom of each leg, causing the thump/squish sound that they had all been hearing. Hardened scales coated its back and limbs like plate armour, the only open spots seeming to be at the joints in its limbs.

Klein charged in as quietly as he could and brought his Katana down on the exposed joint behind the creatures left knee. Just as the hybrid raised his sledgehammer do diver Argo a fatal blow, Klein's strike connected causing the monster to reel in pain and emit a deafening howl. The horrible sounds seemed to almost have force of their own, pushing everyone back and draining a portion of their sanity.

Argo's sanity teetered on the brink of oblivion. She was on her her back, hands clamped over her ears and eyes pressed shut so tight her lashed had vanished. Somehow, she still knew where the threat was and was meekly pushing herself away with with her legs.

The brute spun around with a speed that seemed physically impossible for it's deformed shape and massive size. Before Klein could recover from the sonic onslought, the monster's sledgehammer was barrelling straight for his head.

Liz was at his side a moment later, her enhanced shield brought up against the creature's attack. The crack was deafening, the shock wave of the impact cascading up her arm, and a faction of a second later, the unmistakable sound of shattering. Liz's chitin shield exploded into hundreds of pieces and the remaining force of the impact sent her careening into Klein, and the pair of them scattered across the damp concrete floor.

The monstrous abomination took one thunderous step towards them. Looking up at its towering form, they realized that the creature didn't even have any kind of recognisable face, sprouting up from its hunched neck was a vicious twisted amalgamation of a Sea Lamprey's head. Row upon row of jagged teeth circled round and round, slowly drawing the eye into the pit of its gullet. A massive tentacled arm wrapped tightly around the sledgehammer as it brought the weapon to bear against its stunned foes.

Upon seeing the monster lumbering towards them, Klein's sanity meter dipped into the caution zone and his vision began to blur slightly. In the back of his mind, he wondered if the hammer the monster bore was simply to cripple its prey before devouring rather than serving any directly lethal purpose.

He shook off the thought in an instant, was the sanity loss causing his mind to wander? Again his mind strayed. He centred his Katana in is field of view, placing the brute at the end of it. Nothing else could draw his focus or it would be too late.

Liz rose next to Klein, her left arm numb and hanging at her side. With her enhanced shield gone, they had no chance of blocking the attack and a direct hit from the giant sledge could mean the end of them. She readied her mace in her good hand and crouched low, waiting for the monster to make the first move.

The brute took another thundering step forward and roared in its maddening tone. The deafening sound shook their stance and a moment later, the creatures sledge was falling like a guillotine towards them.

Both of them backpedalled in time to avoid the impact, but the force of the blow was so massive that it sent chunks of concrete flying out in every direction. One clipped Liz in the side of the head, staggering her and causing her to loose her already precarious balance and fall to her back.

Klein moved to assist her instinctively, but the brute's maw of a head extended out from it's body, growing even larger and seeking to swallow him. "Eat this!" He shouted as dramatically as he could muster and shoved his Katana into what passed for the creatures gums.

The monster reeled back in pain, so quickly that Klein was pulled along with it until his Katana dislodged from the creatures jowl and he was flung to the ground just a few feet from where Liz was regaining her senses. Together, they once again struggled to their feet, grim determination splayed across both of their weary faces.

As the creature raised it's giant hemmer once more, a loud "Tiyahh!" split the air.

A fraction of a second later, Asuna landed on the hunched back of the abomination, driving her rapier clean through the nape of its neck. The monster roared in pain and it's unarmed tentacled appendage shot up towards her.

Kirito was right behind his partner however and ready for it's inevitable counterattack. He leaped from a nearby crate and intercepted the attack in mid air using all his downward momentum to meet the tentacled portion of the arm at the point where it connected to the creatures armoured upper arm, severing it completely.

The monster thrashed in pain, it's HP now below half. Asuna held tight to her rapier as to not get thrown off and Kirito back peddled to avoid the wild appendages. Then the creature slowed. It looked as thought it was still trying to move but that it was doing so through a thick fluid instead of air.

Agent Nishiyama had rounded the corner. With his hand outstretched he was chanting a spell in the strange language of this world. His sanity bar was dipping, but the effect on the creature was more that worth the cost.

Liz and Klein rushed back into the fight, each going for one of the abomination's knees. Klein slid around the left leg and once again struck the exposed joint causing a spray of foul ichor from the now severed tendons. Liz took the right leg straight on, smashing the creatures kneecap with her mace, splintering bone with one mighty strike. The hybrid toppled forward, crashing to the floor with only a few percentage points of HP left.

Asuna withdrew her rapier from the monster and laid a single clean slash clear across the back of it's neck. With that final attack the creature's life finally depleted and it lay still at last.

"Thanks for the rescue." Argo said a few moments later. She was sitting leaned up against a nearby crate, with her eyes closed. "Don't try to loot any of the crates, that's what got me into this mess."

"Here Argo." Kirito said, producing a small item from his inventory. The item's description read _Drops of Laudanum._ Argo downed a couple drops and her sanity meter rose a little bit, her vision also cleared and she received a buff that said _Your mind is temporarily fortified against the horrors of the world._

Klein took some from his own inventory to the same effect. Afterwords he stared down quizzically at the strange bottle of liquid. "What is this stuff anyway." he asked as the rest of the party also downed a couple drops each.

"You don't want to know." Liz answered.

Asuna quickly took stock of their situation. They had all taken a not insignificant amount of sanity loss, and even with their supply of Laudanum, she didn't expect them to be able to keep going much longer without suffering some serious drawbacks to their ability to function. That being said, with the exception of Argo who was now being treated by Agent Nishiyama, they all still had most of their health and couldn't really afford to turn back anyway.

A loud damp smacking sound cut through her thoughts and she instinctively turned to face the source. It was a person that stood atop a gantry that extended out from a second floor section of the factory some forty feet away. The NPC was draped head to toe in a long black cloak that covered their entire large body and the way the shadows seemed to bend around them, it took Asuna a moment to realize that the person was actually moving. It then dawned on her that the strange sound she heard echoing through the factory was the sound of this person applauding them.

She squinted at the NPC's form in the distance. It's nameplate had strange golden Eldritch symbols surrounding it, identifying it as an elite enemy; one designed for only large groups to fight. The name of the NPC itself was _Barnabus Marsh._

* * *

**Hey everyone, I hope that was worth the wait after the last cliffhanger ending. I mean, I suppose this one is too, but only if you know the Lovecraft side of this story as well as most of you know the SAO side. **

**I've been having a lot of computer trouble lately and wasn't sure I'd get this chapter out before I have to take it in to get fixed and this was (just by a smidge) the longest chapter yet. (I still can't believe I was originally planning for the last chapter, this one, and the next to be all one chapter). Special thanks to commandocucumber for the help in getting my editing done much faster than usual. Your assistance is always greatly appreciated. :) That being said, no idea what the ETA is looking like for the next chapter at the moment. If my computer just needs a quick fix, it shouldn't be much longer of a wait than usual, otherwise, who knows. **

**Anyhow, that you all once again for reading and I'll see you all next time when shit's gunna start hitting the fan. ;) **

**\- Tawnis**


	10. Fractured Code: Chapter 10

Chapter X – The Crone of Innsmouth:

It happened in an instant.

The sound was deafening, the splintering of wood and the scraping of hundreds of rusty nails on concrete assaulted their ears as dozens of the waterlogged crates were tossed about like leaves in a hurricane. They couldn't see what was directly causing the effect, but they were skilled enough to start dodging right away.

In addition to the sealed flying crates, strange objects were spilling from the broken ones. Even glancing at them briefly started to blur her vision so Asuna tried to focus only on the debris and her team. She narrowly avoided a piece of re-bar that shot past her head before she stole a quick glance at her party. In all the chaos, it took her a few moments to realize that they were all slowly being forced apart from each other. She wasn't even sure if anyone else had actually seen their target.

"Up there!" she shouted, pointing to Barnabas Marsh.

He seemed to be directing the attack on them, but exactly how, Asuna couldn't tell. His arms were now outstretched, but his hands were still hidden beneath his long black robe. Some of the others took notice, but Asuna wasn't able to tell exactly who as she narrowly dodged another crate and made for Marsh's location herself.

She had never been in a hurricane before, but Asuna had to imagine that is was not that dissimilar to her current situation. As she tried to push towards her target, every few steps required a swift dodge. Left, right, back, left, back again, she could barely keep her forward momentum going.

The first impact hit the back of her left shoulder while she was dodging another crate from the opposite side. The force spun her like a wild top and dropped her to her knees, taking with it a small chunk of her HP. Before she could get her feet under her again, another crate barrelled straight towards her head.

A force grabbed her and pushed her forward. It took a moment for her to realize that Kirito had looped his arm under hers and brought her both to her feet and into a run in one smooth motion.

"The others are spreading out to distract him. We're on Marsh." he shouted through the cacophony of scraping metal and shattering wood.

"Right." she replied, joining stride with Kirito.

She couldn't see the rest of her party anymore, but whatever they were doing seemed to be working. The items being tossed about the room had lessened and after dodging a few more crates, they made it to the base of the gantry where Barnabas Marsh stood.

The gantry itself was supported but several wood beams set at an angle. Fortunately for Kirito and Asuna, the old wood was damp and in poor condition, much like the rest of the facility. With a quick slash from both of their weapons, they brought the whole gantry, and Barnabas Marsh with it, tumbling down.

Everything came crashing around them causing instinct to take over as they shielded their eyes from the debris kicked up by the crash. When they lowered their arms to see, the oppressive din about the warehouse had ceased and an eerie silence had fallen over the factory. Standing in the exact centre of destroyed gantry without so much as a speck of dust covering his dark robe, was Barnabas Marsh.

Kirito and Asuna didn't wait for the dust to settle, they moved in for the kill.

Asuna was closer to their foe and took the lead in the attack. With her trademark lightning speed, she closed the distance in mere moments and thrust for her target's heart.

So fast that even Asuna could barely follow, Barnabas Marsh bent backwards, as if he had no spine at all, and evaded the strike. Something struck her right ankle a moment later, taking her legs out from under her and landing Asuna on the floor. The next moment, a strike from the opposite side the sent her rolling right into Kirito's path.

Kirito stumbled, hopping awkwardly over Asuna's tumbling form as he tried to follow through with his attack. A flash of something came from his left and only his instincts got his blade up to block in time. The impact sent him soaring and landed him on top of Asuna in a heap, but even then, he still had no idea what had actually hit him.

Standing in the middle of the rubble, as though he had yet to move a single muscle, remained Barnabas Marsh.

"Some NPC, I can't even see his attacks." Kirito groaned as he pushed himself to his feet and offered Asuna a hand up.

The rest of their party slowly made their way over the scattered remnants of the warehouse to surround their target. Liz and Klein were almost directly opposite of Kirito and Asuna, Argo was to their right crouching atop one of the few crates that had not been tossed about in the attack, and Agent Nishiyama was on their left gnarled staff pointed at their target.

In the centre remained Barnabas Marsh, still seeming completely unconcerned with them and making no obvious move of his own to attack.

The party circled their target, slowly closing in on him; yet still he did not move.

"I'll draw out his attack, you figure out what he's doing." Kirito whispered.

"Right." Asuna replied. She maintained her readied stance, but stopped advancing.

Kirito lunged forward with an overhead strike, aiming to connect with Marsh's left shoulder. The impact he expected, but didn't see, hit his torso on the left and sent him careening harmlessly past Barnabas Marsh.

"The floor! Watch the grates on the floor!" Asuna shouted.

As Kirito rolled himself back onto his feet he took a closer look at the floor of the factory around him. Interspersed across it were over a dozen large grates, made to drain water out of the facility. Each of them had a set of hinges to allow them to be opened easily, and underneath Barnabas Marsh's robes, he could just barely make out the tip of an opened grate.

"We need to get him off that grate!" Asuna shouted to her party. "Move in together, keep each other covered."

Kirito shifted back to Asuna's side and readied his blade. This time they moved up cautiously, one eye on the grates near their feet and one eye on their target. Liz and Klein did the same on the opposite end. Argo and Agent Nishiyama, both separated from the group, approached even more cautiously.

The attack came fast, but this time they were ready for it. A large tentacle whipped out of a nearby grate but Kirito already had his sword prepped for the strike. Right as the tentacle was about to connect with his chest, Kirito's blade thrust deep into the muscly tissue. Instantly the tentacle flailed violently, catching Kirito under the chin and sending him stumbling back, but the blow also disoriented Marsh and created an opening.

Asuna didn't waste the moment, she made the last fifteen feet between her and Marsh in a flash and planted three quick strikes right in his torso.

Barnabas Marsh reeled from the blow, but sprung back towards her with terrifying speed. He was just about to slam his face into Asuna's when he let out a deafening scream and flailed to the side.

Asuna's sanity metre dropped slightly as Marsh, his HP down to nearly ten percent flopped to the ground beside her, flailing about like a fish out of water. Over the grate that Marsh had used to attack them, Klein now stood, his katana drenched in foul ichor from cutting clean through the tentacles beneath the monster.

Liz, Argo, and Nishiyama, who had all been battling their own tentacles, finally lowered their guard as the muscly appendages fell into whatever tunnel system connected the grates together.

Asuna turned to back to Marsh's body to finish the thing off only to see an empty cloak with no creature inside of it.

"He's still out there." she said as she readied her rapier once more.

"Circle up." Kirito ordered and the party quickly converged in the centre of the room, putting their backs to each other.

Asuna scanned the shattered remnants of the factory for any sign of their target, but it was easier said than done. The entire place was littered with strange objects and if she let her vision linger on them for even a moment, she would start suffering sanity loss. It was a strange type of camouflage, but it was also proving surprisingly effective.

There was no way Asuna was going to find him like that, but perhaps there was another way. The factory had turned deathly quiet, perhaps as Argo had done before, they could hear their target instead. She quickly shushed the rest of the party and calmed her breathing, focusing on anything that sounded out of place.

Dripping echoed through the ruined warehouse accompanied only by the soft, regulated breathing of her and her companions. _Perhaps he's run off?_ She thought to herself, but then something caught her ear. It was very faint, a slight clicking to her right, as though something hard but light was scurrying across the concrete floor.

Then a slightly louder clack reached her ears and she spun in that direction. Something was in mid air, heading right for her. There was no time to line up a proper strike, but she was able to get her rapier up to block its path. She intercepted the creature and it clamped tight to her sword for just a moment which was all she needed to take in the measure of the thing.

The creature was about a foot and a half long and had a dark maroon armoured shell in its back. It had latched onto her sword with it's rows of small gnashing teeth feeding into an abhorrent spiral of pulsating suckers. A definitive head did not exist, but it did have two long antenna that swung about wildly trying to find its desired prey. Further down were two sets of crab like claws and below that were a further four sets of jagged appendages covered in small spines. At the far end of the creature swung a small tail with two needle-like barbs on the tip.

Barnabas Marsh's true form swung its tail around, aiming for Asuna's chest. She thrust herself back and away from the creature, evading the attack but putting herself off balance. She stumbled, but held a grip on her sword and causing Marsh to fall with her. Quickly the monster leapt from her sword and landed in the middle of the group just as they were all turning to face it.

Before anyone else had their weapons ready, Marsh sprung onto Klein's left leg digging in hard with its spiny legs and sinking its siphon-like mandibles deep into its target. Rapidly, Klein's HP began to drop and Marsh's began to recover.

Kirito was right next to him and drew back his sword to attack but paused, there was no way to get a clean strike without hitting Klein as well.

"Do it!" Klein shouted.

Kirito's blade fell a moment later, digging into both Klein's leg and the vulnerable underside of Barnabas Marsh. Several of the creature's legs came apart followed but a screech that shook them all.

Marsh hit the floor with an audible crunch and tried to scurry away, but Nishiyama was faster. With a few words of the eldritch language Marsh slowed, wobbling in place as though he couldn't tell which direction he was going. Argo moved in next, not striking for the armoured shell, but scraping her Katars along the concrete floor beneath Marsh and using them as a lever to flip him into his back.

Liz was ready in the next moment, as soon as Marsh was on his back, but as she raised her mace to strike her hand froze. With Marsh squirming slowly on his back, they finally got a good look at him, each of the creatures many limbs overlapping above is hard torso drew to mind an image of a face, stretched almost beyond recognition and frozen in the state of a horrified scream.

Everyone's sanity meters dropped and Asuna's vision began to swim. She saw Liz with her mace teetering over Marsh's body, Asuna couldn't be sure exactly what happened next, but she saw Liz fall forward and before a thunderous crack shook the warehouse.

Asuna fumbled thought her menu straining to locate what she sought. Eventually she managed to select her laudanum drops and quickly downed a few of them. Her sanity meter recovered and her vision cleared, but not completely. Two debuffs now appeared on her HUD. The first read _Laudanum Overdose_, which simply read: consuming more Laudanum will be fatal. The second read: _Acute Hypoxia_, but didn't say anything else.

She groggily pulled herself to her feet, she felt sluggish and a little dizzy, but still nowhere near as bad as when her sanity meter had almost bottomed out a few moments before. She looked over to Marsh's body and saw that Liz's mace had connected cleanly with the centre of the creatures body and split it clean in two.

The horrific face had dissipated and the creature's HP finally dropped to zero allowing the party a much needed moment to relax.

"Uhh, little help here." Klein said.

He sat on the ground cradling the mangled mess of his leg with one hand and pulling out a few of Marsh's spined appendages that were still stuck in him with the other. Klein's HP was down to twelve percent and he now had a _Mangled Limb_ debuff that prevented him from using his right leg.

"Good thing this ended when it did, I doubt we would have lasted much longer." Liz remarked.

None of them had any stats remaining over fifty percent. Klein and Argo had lost the most HP and Nishiyama and Argo were hanging onto their remaining sanity by a thread. Both of them had also acquired the _Laudanum Overdose_ debuff, but Asuna wasn't able to see what other side effects that had received from it.

"You just had to say something." Kirito said and pointed up to where the gantry used to be. "Look."

Atop the second level of the warehouse next to the ruined supports of the gantry stood a familiar figure. Even though she had not gotten a good look at them the first time around the heavy cloak was familiar enough, also their nameplate still read _Mysterious Informant._

She had a very angular face that almost seemed to come to a soft point in the middle and a long black ponytail that swayed slightly behind her. Cradled under her left arm was the _G__olden __C__oral __C__rown. _

"I owe you all a great deal, I never would have been able to steal this on my own." She offered a deep over the top bow as her nameplate changed to _Master Thief._ "I honestly hope that you can survive the aftermath. Best of luck."

Kirito and Asuna gave chase but the _Master Thief,_ quickly dove out of a nearby window. By the time the pair reached the window themselves, their quarry was nowhere to be seen. What they did see however were the denizens of Innsmouth moving to surround the factory from all sides. The forming mob looked like a cast of sand crabs slowly emerging from the tide.

"That's... not good." Kirito said.

"Come on, let's get back and help the others." Asuna said, turning back to the group.

As they jogged back Asuna opened up her menu and messaged Sinon. _We're surrounded down here, do you see any way out?_ It was only then she realized that they had been so busy with the fight, that they hadn't seen both Sinon and Riordan's health and sanity deplete. They were both at less than twenty percent and were throwing out skills as fast as their cool-downs would allow, no surprise they hadn't been able to give them a head up about the mob outside.

"So do you want the bad news or the worse news?" Kirito asked as they rejoined their party.

Nishiyama sighed. "Dealer's choice I suppose."

"The thief's nowhere to be seen and even if we could find her, we're not in any condition to fight."

"And the worse news?"

"We can't contact Sinon and Riordan," Asuna chimed in "they're tied up in combat right now. Also, the entire building is being surrounded."

"Just great." Klein groaned.

"Maybe we could log out?" Liz suggested. "It might reset the quest and we wouldn't be surrounded anymore."

"Yeah, but then it would re-spawn all the mobs in here." Argo pointed out.

"Oh... right."

Asuna then remembered the whole reason they wanted to get the crown in the first place. "We might not have to get very far." she said.

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked.

"That shop we found, the old lady that ran it said that she had a barrier up that kept the creatures at bay. If we can get there, we might be able to find a way out. We just need to rush past the mob, it's maybe one hundred meters from here. Nishiyama, would you be able to heal Klein's leg like you did my arm?"

"Sorry, but I don't have enough sanity left. If I cast a spell that strong, I'd bottom out and you'd have a useless blob instead of someone with only one leg."

"We can make it," Liz insisted. "I'll support his leg if you can all cover us."

"No, I'll help carry Klein instead." Nishiyama insisted. "I'm dead weight without the ability to cast spells anyway. Better to have people who can still fight keeping them off us."

"Alright, let's move fast then." Asuna said. "The less time we give them to surround us, the better."

The party quickly made their way through the ruined warehouse to the door that Kirito, Asuna, and Nishiyama had used to enter the facility. Asuna paused by the door and put her finger to her lips to quiet the group before slowly opening the door a crack and peeking outside.

Outside, the crowd was slowly shambling together. They didn't seem to have any particular organization to them, _Perhaps killing Marsh __a__ffected them somehow? _Asuna thought. They milled about around the factory grounds and on both sides of the fence, almost like mindless zombies. From what she could tell, they weren't as strong as the monsters they'd defeated already, but there were just so many of them. Even taking the clearest route, there were half a dozen between them and the shop.

"Stay fast and stay mobile, but keep Klein and Nishiyama covered." Asuna ordered. "If we slow down, we're done. On my count, three, two, one, go."

The party broke from the warehouse with Asuna on point, Kirito on the right, Liz on the left, and Argo in the rear with Klein and Nishiyama protected in the centre of the formation. Ahead of them were two clustered groups of three NPC's all named _Innsmouth_ _Mob_, one before the gate and one after. If they moved fast enough, they'd be able to get away before the other NPC's could surround them.

They closed on the first group within seconds, all of whom seemed to be in the mid-stages of the Innsmouth Look and carried various improvised weapons.

Asuna power slid through the mud and between the legs of the large man in the centre, striking his knee with her rapier as she went through. His crippled knee gave out under his weight allowing Klein and Nishiyama to easily sidestep around him.

Liz deftly blocked a blow from a two by four with a massive nail in it and crashed into her attacker with her shield practically bowling him over and allowing her to push past. Once she was free and clear, she quickly fell back into formation next to Klein and Nishiyama.

Kirito deflected a blow from a makeshift club with one sword, and quickly severed his attacker's wrist with his other. He moved to re-take his spot but the mob member leapt at him, trying to tackle him to the ground.

Argo met the attacker mid jump, driving her Katars into its exposed side and quickly ripping them free in a shower of purple ichor. The monster dropped like a stone, sprawling to the ground in agonized spasms. She spared Kirito a quick wink and fell back in formation behind Nishiyama and Klein.

"Keep pushing, we're almost there!" Asuna shouted as they passed through the open factory gate and closed in on the second group.

"Caster!" Kirito shouted, noticing the largest threat.

Two members of the group looked the same as the ones that they had just blown past, but the third in the back was completely covered in a cloak, hunched over, and bore a gnarled staff. As the party drew closer, the two mob members in the front closed ranks to protect their caster as he started to chant.

"Boss, boost me!" Argo shouted.

Nishiyama let go of Klein who stumbled and fell to his knees then turned around, cupping his hands into a launch pad just as he had done when they snuck into the facility. He boosted Argo high up over the heads of the front guards allowing her to come down right on their target, driving her Katars clean through the casters face before he was able to finish chanting his spell. His two guards turned to attack Argo but were quickly cut down from behind by Kirito and Asuna as Liz got Klein back on his feet and running again.

"Time to go." Nishiyama said as dozens more of _Innsmouth Mob_ NPC's closed in around them, joined by the ones they had only injured as they ran past.

Asuna made it to the door first, pulling it open and holding it in place with her leg. "Move everyone!"

Kirito took up guard on the other side of the door as Argo bolted into the shop. Liz and Klein were through next followed closely by Nishiyama then Kirito.

Asuna paused as she headed through the door, noticing that the mob had stopped about a dozen feet from the front of the shop. They didn't look like they were physically trying to enter, but she still had aggro on all of them, they were trying to get at her. The ocean of unblinking stares sent a shiver down her spine and her sanity dropped just a little, bringing it a hair's breath away from worsening her vision. Quickly Asuna scrambled inside slamming and locking the door behind her with a satisfying click.

As she turned around to rejoin the party, Asuna saw the last thing she expected. A standoff.

Everyone had their weapons drawn, Liz had even gently set Klein down to ready her shield. Standing at near the front counter, a little over ten feet away was the NPC tagged as _Master Thief. _She had a colt .45 aimed at the group in one hand, and in the other she still cradled the _Golden Coral Crown_. ETO wasn't anything like GGO where Kirito could deflect bullets, and at their current low health pools a single hit would likely be fatal.

"I have to say, I'm impressed that you all managed to track me here." she stated.

"It was more of a fluke actually." Asuna admitted.

"Either way, you can't have the crown." she placed her finger softly on the trigger and the whole group tensed.

"STOP!" A thunderous voice shook the entire store causing everyone inside to stumble and drop their guard. "There will be no fighting in this place."

Once the voice wasn't shaking the building's very foundations anymore, Asuna recognized it as Hagatha's. Sure enough, a moment later the old shopkeeper rounded a set of shelves and placed herself between the two conflicting parties.

"Grandmother, these people were trying to take the crown." the _Master Thief_ insisted.

"That's because I asked them to Ruby." she replied.

"Wait... what? Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Because I had told you repeatedly not to get involved, if you had listened you wouldn't have almost shot my guests here."

"I..." Ruby trailed off, her gaze dropping to her feet.

"I apologize for my granddaughter, she tends to get a little overzealous at times. Please allow me to introduce myself properly. My name is Hagatha Standish, and I've been living here as long as there had been a here to live. I have hoped for a long time that people such as yourselves would once day arrive to purge the festering rot that had taken root within this place."

As she spoke her nameplate changed to _Hagatha Standish, Innsmouth Crone_ and Ruby's changed to _Ruby Standish, Master Thief._

"Now however is not the time for a lengthy discussion. As I told you before, my wards are very weak at the moment and unfortunately even with the crown, the ritual to restore them would take far too long." As if to punctuate her point, the glass on one of the many barred windows shattered and a scaled hand reached through trying to grab at anything in reach.

"This way please." she stated calmly.

Everyone looked to Asuna who nodded and followed Hagatha as led the party over to another part of the store. It didn't seem any different at first until she slowly bent over to peel back a rug and reveal a trap door underneath.

"This will be the only way out for us now." she said before turning to her granddaughter. "Ruby dear, can you please prepare a parting gift for our friends outside?"

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Hagatha took a moment to look around her shop before a small weary smile crossed her wrinkled lips. "Quite sure my dear."

"Alright, but you'd all better get a head start." Ruby replied before disappearing into the shops back room.

"Please this way." Hagatha told the group before descending down a creaky wooden ladder into the darkness below.

"Are you sure about this A-chan?" Argo asked once she thought Ruby and Hagatha were out of earshot. "I've never come across any record of this NPC in my research on Innsmouth; I know not a lot of players have been here yet, but still..."

"It's possible it could be because this is the path that the players who lost their minds took." Nishiyama pointed out. "We have to investigate this."

"Either way, it's not like we have much choice considering the army outside." Kirito noted.

"She seems earnest to me and she's been helping us out. I'm not about to mistrust her without cause." Asuna said and followed Hagatha down the stairway.

"Yeah, it's not like one of them lied to us and almost got us killed or anything." Argo mumbled as the group slowly took turns following Asuna down into the darkness.

A dim yellow light flickered on, then another, and another, dozens lit up a gloomy dirt passageway reinforced with old damp wooden beams. Dotted along the pathway where small mucky puddles and rats that quickly scurried from one side to the other.

"This passage will take us out beyond the boarder on Innsmouth and will allow you to lay low until things calm down." Hagatha said as she took the lead down the tunnel.

"What about the ones behind us?" Asuna asked. "Won't they find the passage?"

"Don't you worry, Ruby will make sure that is all taken care of."

As everyone was gathering themselves up to follow Hagatha, a message finally appeared in their party chat from Sinon. _Sorry we've been out of contact, we were ambushed at the Gilman House and had to fight our way clear. We've currently taken cover nearby and seem to have __finally__ cleared agro. Are you still in the factory? Where do you need us?_

Asuna quickly typed a message back. _We're in a passageway leading out of the town. Not sure where it will drop us off, will message you when we're out. _

After a minute of silent walking Ruby rejoined the group carrying some kind of box with a cable attached to it. She jogged up to Hagatha and said "This should be far enough."

Ruby took a knee and set the box down on the ground, only once Asuna saw the plunger sticking out of the top did she realize exactly what she was looking at. With a sly smirk Ruby plunged the handle down and a moment later the entire passageway shook as a massive explosion took place overhead.

Asuna quickly jogged up to Hagatha's side. "But your shop..." she started.

"Is no longer necessary." Hagatha assured her. "I can't say that I won't miss my little home, but sentimentality won't keep any of us alive against the kind of threat we face."

"How... much do you actually know about that threat?" Asuna pressed.

"I have existed here for as long as there has been a here to exist in. I remember the days when this town was first founded, where it was the bold new horizon for people to seek their fortune. Now when I see the tendrils of corruption that have wrapped themselves around the souls of the people here, I know that no sacrifice is too great to banish the darkness."

"If you only knew." Asuna mumbled.

"What I know is that you and your companions have faced down dangers beyond my understanding and come through victorious." Asuna looked over to Hagatha who had a sly knowing smile on her face.

"What makes you say that?"

"Oh my dear, these old eyes see more that just the person before me. They see the energy of your very being, a soul that has travelled a great distance and fought against terrible hardship. I no longer need my shop because I have faith that what we need right now are you and your companions."

"Thank you." Asuna replied. "I hope we prove worthy of your trust."

"As do I."

Asuna thought about all the people that had come to Innsmouth before her, could they have followed this path as well before they died? Maybe Hagatha could direct them in the right direction. "I had been meaning to ask, do you know the source of the corruption in Innsmouth? Can we strike at whatever is causing this?"

"In a manner of speaking, what plagues our people is a threat from beyond time and space. I have kept myself and my granddaughter alive by simply staying out of its way, but now I sense that the time of our seclusion has come to an end. Once you are clear of danger, we will do what we can to find the source and will contact you if we do so."

"Thank you, but I wouldn't want you to put yourselves in danger on our account."

Hagatha smiled a warm smile. "Oh my sweet child, we are all already in grave danger."

Asuna wasn't quite sure how to respond to that and as the silence dragged on, she slowly slowed down to walk beside Kirito instead.

"What did she say?" Kirito asked.

"She said that she'd help us, but it's hard to tell if this is all just part of the quest."

"You think it's not?"

Asuna took a few moments before answering in a whisper. "Depending on how advanced the AI design is, it might not be; she certainly sounds like a real person. It's not like I can just ask her, 'hey by the way do you actually know that this is all a program'?"

"Fair point."

"Either way, it's still a lead. Even if it is just part of the quest, it could point us in the right direction."

The party walked for another fifteen minutes occasionally passing a few branching paths but pressing ever forward until they finally reached an old iron door sealed by a massive padlock. Hagatha removed a worn key from around her neck and unsealed the exit before Ruby stepped up and slowly pushed the door open.

They came out into the dim light that permeated everything around Innsmouth and realized that they were just outside of the town itself but not quite in the forest. Asuna and Kirito quickly clamoured up the hill to get a look at how far they had come. The town sprawled out below them with a large plume of smoke rising from where they assumed Hagatha's shop had once been.

"You will be safe here." Hagatha assured them. "There is a small ring around the town's limits where the locals do not venture, but neither do the creatures of the forest. Now we must check the seals on our other exits to ensure that none have been found, I shall contact you if we discover anything of importance."

"Thank you once again." Asuna said, bowing awkwardly from her spot atop the hill.

Hagatha returned the bow and she and Ruby disappeared back into the tunnels beneath Innsmouth.

"I just got word from Sinon, they're actually not far from here." Kirito said.

"That's good to hear." Nishiyama said joining him at the top of the hill. "We need to rest up and get back in there as soon as possible."

Everyone in the group nodded mentally preparing themselves for another harrowing confrontation.

* * *

"Augh!" Nishiyama shouted as he threw his half full rocks glass across his office and watched it shatter against the wall. "Three days, three fucking days in Innsmouth and we've gotten absolutely nowhere!"

"Dai, you've got to calm down." Agent Shirai told him.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" he snapped. "We're this close I can feel it." he held his fingers a hair's breath apart from each other. "But we're stuck, spinning our wheels while who knows what is going on behind the veil."

Chiho Shirai gently put her hands on her friend's shoulders. "You've been at this for almost three weeks straight now, I think it's time that you all took a break."

Nishiyama brushed Shirai's hands off and walked across the room to pick up the scattered bits of broken glass. "You know we can't do that. We could have another victim tomorrow, or the day after. If we don't' stop this soon, more people are going to die."

"And if you're all exhausted wrecks when you finally figure this all out, will you still be able to save everyone?" Shirai sighed inwardly, she hadn't wanted to bring this up, but her partner gave her no choice. "Look, you built the team this way so that you could have people making sure everyone is acting like themselves. Dai... you're not acting like yourself."

Nishiyama spun around ready to shoot back a retort when a spike of pain flared out and up his right forearm. Immediately he looked down to see a few drops of blood falling from his hand, he'd clenched a fist around the broken glass without even realizing it. He stared down at his red palm leaking blood, felt the spiky tingling pain dancing along his nerves, and wondered why he had done that.

Shirai quickly ran out of the room to grab a towel and returned to see her friend standing in the same place as before, still staring at his bloody hand. She took his hand in hers and cautiously unfolded his fingers. Upon closer inspection, the wounds looked worse than they actually were and she was able to gently removed the shards of glass before wrapping up his hand.

"Okay, I suppose you're right." Nishiyama finally said when the job was done.

"Thank you." she said with a soft smile. "One of them was a little deeper than I thought, a few stitches though and I'll have you patched right up; then I'll fill the team in."

"No, it's okay; I'll do it." he insisted, then looked down at his hand once more. "Though perhaps you should be the one to give them a lift home."

* * *

The drive home was a quiet one. Kirito and Asuna had taken his motorcycle back and Klein had given Liz a lift in his car since they lived close to each other. Sinon sat in the back seat looking absently out the window as Agent Shirai drove. Argo was the only other person with them and she had nodded off to sleep across from Sinon.

"I hope you don't hold it against him." Shirai finally said breaking the silence.

Sinon withdrew her gaze from the glimmering city lights and redirected it to the front of the vehicle. "Hold what against him?" she asked.

"How hard Agent Nishiyama, is pushing all of you. He's always been a very passionate person, sometimes he can let his emotions get the better of him; even if it doesn't always seem like that's the case. It's just that after we've failed to help people so many times... it's like... what was the point in us doing any of this in the first place, why did we even take the job if we can't even do it right. I can't say that it hasn't been getting to me either."

"You two are really close, aren't you?" Sinon asked.

"That obvious? We've been friends since we were kids, grew up together, went to the same schools, had the same friends. Honestly I can't remember a time in my life when we didn't have each other."

"Are you two... uhh, never mind."

Agent Shirai chuckled. "It's okay, I don't mind sharing; just don't tell Nishiyama. We were once, it lasted just long enough for us to realize that we were far better off as just friends, and we've been like that ever since."

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Sinon finally got up the courage to ask what was on her mind. "Do you think he resents us... do you?"

"I don't resent you Asada, any of you; and I don't think Nishiyama does either. We just wanted to help people, and if others were faster at it than us, then we're happy that those people were helped. I can't speak for Nishiyama, but if anything, I think a resent myself a little... for not being good enough."

"You will be this time." Sinon insisted. "You've brought us all together, found this threat that no one else will acknowledge. If... when we put an end to this, you two can hold your heads high."

The car slowed to a halt outside Sinon's apartment complex, she had been so focused on the conversation, she hadn't realized they were almost to her home.

"It's funny, I was trying to make sure you weren't worried, to cheer you up and you ended up doing that for me. I guess you're better at that too."

"I didn't mean-"

"It's okay, it was just a joke." Shirai said as she popped open Sinon's door. "Goodnight Miss Asada."

Sinon clamoured out of the car into the chilly night air. "Goodnight Agent Shirai." she replied.

As the car drove away and she turned towards her home, Sinon couldn't help but wonder. Shirai had said that it was a joke, but was it really?

* * *

**Hey everyone, sorry it's taken so long to get an update out. Between my computer practically dying on me, a bunch of real life BS, and a heaping helping of writer's block on the Barnabas Marsh fight, it's been a battle getting this chapter squared away. Glad to finally share it with all of you. :) **

**I've noticed that I've been bouncing around POV characters a lot through out this story with Asuna running the show for most of this chapter, while the previous chapter was kinda all over the place. Has anyone been finding that jarring at all? I've been tending to just use whatever person is most central to everything going on in a particular chapter or even scene. **

**I'm already well into the next chapter and it's turning out to be quite the long one, probably the longest yet. I'm thinking that like I did with the Innsmouth section, I may split it into two chapters in order to get another update out in a reasonable amount of time. **

**Since you've all been waiting so long, I guess I'll throw in a little tidbit about the next chapter. It will be titled The Sniper & The Scythe and will focus on Sinon and Riordan. I had wanted to get their escape from the Gilman House into this chapter, but it didn't really fit organically. They'll be up to something else in the next chapter though.**

**Oh, and for anyone wondering, Barnabas Marsh's true form was based off of a Siphonostomatoida Copopod; a type of parasite that can reside in many sea creatures, including octopi. **

**Until then,**

**\- Tawnis **


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